Don’t kvetch — vote!
A bunch looking for to mobilize Jewish voters within the metropolis’s upcoming June 24 main elections together with for mayor is launching a $500,000 TV and social-media advert marketing campaign to attempt to drive up turnout amid rising antisemitism.
The narrator of a 30-second video spot titled “Hate Crimes” that’s a part of the push says, “This June, the protection and safety of the Jewish group is on the poll.”
The advert, obtained completely by The Submit, begins operating Monday and is paid for by Jewish Voters Unite.
It rattles off stats exhibiting the rise in native Jewish hate crimes, together with vandalism on the Jewish-owned Effy’s Cafe on the Higher West Aspect, and shows video of a Jewish man being attacked in Brooklyn.
The advert will seem on industrial and cable information networks together with Fox Information Channel, CNN, NY1 and Information 12. It’ll even be streamed on YouTube, Hulu, Roku, Spotify and Pandora and seem on Fb, Instagram and X.
The advert marketing campaign is a part of Jewish Voters Unite’s bigger “Voting is How We Struggle Again” get-out-the Jewish vote effort.
The group, run by Jewish activist Maury Litwack, has 700 volunteers and greater than a dozen paid staffers.
“It is a pivotal second for the Jewish group. This Jewish group feels antisemitism,” Litwack stated.
“This main election gives a possibility to do one thing about it. Jewish voters usually are not sitting on the sidelines. We’re anticipating there can be a historic turnout and consider Jewish voters would be the story of this main election.”
Jewish Voters Unite will quickly open its fourth web site in closely Jewish central Queens, becoming a member of its current places of work in Brooklyn and on Manhattan’s East and West sides.
Canvassers are handing out “Don’t kvetch, vote” merchandise together with hats, cups and wristbands.
Whereas the group is nonpartisan and never backing any explicit candidate, Litwack, a staunch critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, spearheaded the same marketing campaign final 12 months that drove up Jewish turnout in Westchester County, serving to average George Latimer defeat Israel-bashing ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman within the Democratic main.
The DSA sponsored an anti-Israel rally in Occasions Sq. a day after Hamas attacked Israel and slaughtered 1,200 folks on Oct. 7, 2023.
So a bigger Jewish turnout on the polls might be kryptonite for Massive Apple mayoral DSA candidate Zohran Mamdani, who helps the boycott, divestment and sanctions motion in opposition to Israel and has joined in at anti-Israel rallies.
However a giant Jewish turnout might assist ex-Gov., Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic mayoral front-runner in latest polls, in addition to former metropolis Comptroller Scott Stringer and present Comptroller Brad Lander, each of whom are Jewish.
The advert marketing campaign will even attain voters in northern New Jersey, which has a substantial variety of Jewish residents who’re urged to vote of their state’s upcoming aggressive Democratic and Republican main races for governor.
“We wish to end up each Jewish voter,” Litwack stated.
A associated however unbiased Litwack-led group — the Jewish Voters Motion Community — helped register almost 7,000 Jewish New York Metropolis residents as Democrats forward of the June mayoral main, The Submit reported final month.
Greater than 4,130 of the Jewish voters who signed on with the Democratic Celebration — and thus are allowed to vote within the main — had been beforehand registered as unbiased or belonged to the Republican or one other get together.
