Vote ‘as a mensch’: New campaign to get out the Jewish vote

Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights aim to prove their political power for future elections

New Yorkers participate in early voting at a polling site in Brooklyn on Oct. 29. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Benyamin Cohen October 30, 2024

A new social media campaign is encouraging Jewish voters in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn to “#DoItForTheShchuna,” using the Hebrew word for a religious neighborhood.

Exactly 50 years ago, in the leadup to Election Day in Nov. 1974, the Lubavitcher Rebbe told his community in their native Yiddish to go out and vote. Some of those 1974 voters are part of the new campaign.

The new project is the brainchild of Yaacov Behrman, the founder of the Jewish Future Alliance, a voter outreach organization. As a nonprofit, his group cannot endorse a particular candidate, but is instead hoping to increase the community’s political sway in future elections.

“I’m looking at the long game,” Behrman said. By increasing the number of registered Jewish voters in Crown Heights, he’s increasing the likelihood that candidates running in upcoming elections, like the 2025 New York mayoral race, will take the issues of the community more seriously.

“These politicians are creating positions based on voter turnout,” he said. “So, for example, when something comes up with antisemitism, they are more likely to be outspoken against it.”

Vote early and post our “ I Voted Early”sticker. pic.twitter.com/hjAN1G32Ob
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) October 30, 2024

‘Oct. 7 is on the ballot’

This has become all the more relevant since the Hamas attack on Israel. On more than 5,000 postcards sent out by the Jewish Future Alliance to mobilize voters, big block letters declare that “Oct. 7 is on the ballot.” Similar messaging appears on large video screens in storefront windows throughout the neighborhood.

The Crown Heights Jewish Community Council is also mobilizing its members. “Following the Oct. 7 massacres, there was an intense feeling in our community to do something,” it wrote in an open letter, adding that many people signed up for self-defense classes, applied for concealed carry permits and attended protests.

“However,” the letter continued, “there is one thing that we can do to help determine who represents our community and who will have the power to make a difference. We must go out and vote.”

Anti-Jewish hate crimes surged 74% in New York City this year, according to police data. From January through September, Jews were targeted in at least 275 hate crimes, compared to 158 incidents during the same time frame from last year.

‘If you don’t vote, you can’t complain’

As part of the campaign, Behrman produced profiles and a video featuring five Jewish Crown Heights voters, from the ages of 85 to 95, encouraging Jews to register. “As a mensch, an American, and a Jew, you have to vote,” said Sol Rotter, 89, a Brooklyn native. “It’s essential.”

In the video, Rotter recalled the 1944 campaign when President Roosevelt paid a visit to Brooklyn. “My father put me on his shoulders so that I could see the president,” said Rotter, who’s never missed an election in his life.

Shaindel Fogelman, 86, a native of Ukraine who spent time in a displaced persons camp after the Holocaust and eventually immigrated to the U.S., has been voting since 1964. “When we were in Europe, we had no rights. We were voiceless,” she said. “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”

A must-watch: The oldest voters in Crown Heights highlight the importance of voting. Some, born over 95 years ago in the U.S., have been voting since 1952, while others are World War II survivors sharing their journeys to becoming Americans.

Hear why the Lubavitcher Rebbe voted… pic.twitter.com/RIZ9OCxBXG
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) October 14, 2024

Swaying the Haredi vote

While New York is a solidly blue state when it comes to the presidential election, it still presents opportunities for Republicans in Congress. For example, there is a tight race going on between Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican, and former Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, visited the Hasidic village of New Square to meet with the Skverer Rebbe in hopes of securing an endorsement for Jones. House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to make the case for Lawler on a visit there Thursday.

Hasidic communities “have emerged as the rarest of swing voters,” reports The New York Times. “Not particularly partisan, they have fervently supported both former President Donald J. Trump and Democratic politicians, often acting as a bloc.”

In New York’s Hudson Valley, “you have three congressional seats within miles of each other that could essentially decide the chamber, and the Orthodox Jewish community could play a pivotal role in each,” Simcha Eichenstein, a state assemblyman, told The Times.

This week, the political leadership committee of the Satmar Hasidic sect endorsed Trump for president, while also endorsing Rep. Pat Ryan, Democrat of New York, for reelection. (After the 2022 midterms, the group’s leader, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, assailed against the rampant “Trumpism” among the Orthodox community.)

A recent poll found that 68% of Haredim “will definitely vote for Trump.”

“We get all excited over a politician, and then they end up not being the protector or the leader we want,” Behrman said. “We get discouraged by it.”

“But in recent years, the community is learning, and not just in Crown Heights, but the Jewish community in general, is learning that elected officials have real impact in their quality of life.”

Benyamin Cohen is news director at the Forward. He is the author of two books, My Jesus Year and The Einstein Effect, and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post. He lives with his wife in West Virginia with their three dogs, a cat and a flock of chickens known as the Co-Hens.

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