Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Jews of color host virtual ‘sukkah hop’ for Biden campaign— the first of its kind

A group of Jews of color, in partnership with Jewish Americans For Biden, is hosting a virtual sukkah hop and “friendraising” event Wednesday evening ahead of the vice-presidential debate.

It is the first event of its kind featuring Jews of color, according to one of the organizers, Ginna Green, who is a political strategist and consultant.

“It is very clear to many people of color and certainly to me that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris represent the direction that we need to go in,” she said.

The attendees are going to be hopping sukkahs — virtually — through Madison, Wis.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

A typical sukkah hop involves children going from hut to hut to collect treats, but on Wednesday, attendees will hear speakers from inside their sukkahs around the country.

Green said the event’s proximity to the debate was unintentional.

The speakers will be talking about issues of immigration, racial justice, the Supreme Court and public health, said Green, who added that she is hoping to “show the diversity of the Jewish community for the campaign and for the electorate.”

Green also said many of the speakers have stories to share about vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who is married to a Jew and who is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major political party.

There is no fundraising element to the event.

Green said the presence of a “small but vocal minority” of Jewish Trump supporters can make it difficult for Jews of color and progressive Jews to feel comfortable in Jewish spaces. She said that is “a challenge because this election is less about partisanship and less about party and more about morality and humanity.”

About 70% of Jews vote Democrat, but Trump’s vocal support of Israel has drawn Jewish support, and the Orthodox enclaves of the United States skew conservative.

Jewish Americans for Biden, the Jewish coalition within Biden’s campaign, has stressed the candidate’s solidarity with Israel and efforts to combat antisemitism.

This year has represented a reckoning for many legacy Jewish organizations with primarily white leadership and membership. As the rest of the country has grappled with issues of racial representation and justice, so has the Jewish community — demographers estimate that Jews of color make up between 6% and 15% of the American Jewish population, but many are unaffiliated and report feeling alienated by mainstream Jewish institutions.

People of color practicing many faiths have long been the targets of voter suppression efforts and discriminatory voting laws.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.