As Americans head to the polls on Nov. 5, an unprecedented campaign is in high gear alongside the presidential one as Teach Coalition is on a mission to get as many Jewish community members as possible to vote in the upcoming election and every election after it.
Active in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Nevada, California and Florida, Teach Coalition is a division of the Orthodox Union and a nonpartisan grassroots movement that advocates for equitable government funding and quality education for nonpublic schools, including 90% of yeshivas and day schools nationwide. Through the activism of 36,500 community advocates, Teach has succeeded in helping secure resources in the areas of special education, busing, security, scholarships and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, among others.
“Historically, efforts to encourage Jewish community members to vote have been fruitful,” says Teach Coalition founder and CEO Maury Litwack. “Yet beyond robocalls, text messages, and emails to potential voters, Teach Coalition wants to facilitate people’s ability to vote and combat any potential misconceptions they have about the process by educating them in person.”
Among these misconceptions is the belief that registering and voting are complicated and time-consuming. While this may have been the case in the past, Litwack says the current process is seamless and takes about 12 minutes.
“People also believe that their vote doesn’t matter,” he says. “They say that they voted once, but didn’t get the outcome they wanted. To me, that only underscores our collective responsibility to vote and to ensure that our friends and family vote, too. True, the official of your choice may not win. But if you and 20 of your friends vote, the outcome may be affected.”
He adds, “If we want our elected officials to defend Israel, combat antisemitism and recognize our concerns around security and the costs of private education, we must make our voices heard as a community by voting for people who will champion and fight for the issues we care about.”
Teach Coalition opened a local voter outreach center focusing on a key primary election earlier this year in a storefront in the heart of Westchester, N.Y.’s Jewish community, in addition to a center in Philadelphia. The group later launched similar centers in Beverly Hills, Miami, Boca Raton, Fla., and Long Island, N.Y. It also opened a new center in Philadelphia, in addition to several mobile voter centers, all focused on turning out the Jewish vote for November’s general election.
“The centers have been very impactful, and we’re proud of the initiative,” says Litwack. “It’s not just a megaphone, it’s a two-way communication. The Jewish community has rallied around it, and other voting organizations and politicians countrywide have been calling us and saying, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this before. How do we start a voter center in our community?’ ”
While each is staffed by three to five Teach Coalition employees, more than 1,000 Jewish community volunteers have stepped up to promote the cause. These include school educators, who encourage and register their high school seniors to vote; shul captains, who engage congregants and equip them with necessary voting information and resources; and regular citizens. Being a nonpartisan organization, volunteers never recommend candidates; their objective is just to encourage voters to turn up.
“I think that especially after Oct. 7, people are looking for ways to help out,” says Litwack. “The Jewish community is an incredible place, and people want to volunteer. Our dedicated volunteers work in and out of the voter centers, helping people in person, calling potential voters, and even knocking on their doors. Volunteering for this cause doesn’t require a specific skill set or a monetary donation. Every single person has friends and family they can contact. Every single person lives in a community they can mobilize and support.”
Rachel Miller of Merion Station, Pa., is one such volunteer who is fully invested in Teach’s voter campaign. Miller has long appreciated the instrumental role Teach PA has played in getting the state’s EITC (Educational Improvement Tax Credit ) funding for Jewish schools and began volunteering for Teach ahead of her state’s primary in the spring.
“Our primary election was held on the first day of Pesach, which meant a large segment of the Jewish population wouldn’t be able to vote,” she recalls. “It was truly inexcusable, especially after the year we’ve had as Jews. Teach PA’s regional director, Hadassa Levenson, shared Teach’s initiative to encourage the Jewish community to vote by mail and invited me to get on board. Our efforts worked. Scores of people mailed in their votes. When Hadassa told me we’d be working to get more Jewish voters to vote in this upcoming election, I was in.”
Miller says the goal of the voter centers is to help as many people as possible to cast their votes.
“Whether through the mail, early voting or showing up on Election Day, we are here to help our community vote,” she says. “Each volunteer serves as a liaison to a segment of the community so that each part of the community is reached.”
Each volunteer also serves as a role model to others. For her part, Miller is passionate about exercising her own right to vote.
“My brother serves in the United States Army,” she says. “He and his fellow brave soldiers sacrifice so much for our democracy. With that sacrifice, comes a right and a responsibility to vote. We can all think of times in history when Jews were not allowed to vote. Now we are able to, and we must make our voices heard. This year, in particular, I will vote because since Oct. 7 the world has tried to silence us. Never again. We will hold our heads high, and we will fight for freedom and democracy both here in America and Israel. Even if it doesn’t change the outcome, every single vote tips the scale.”
Contact: Rebecca Zisholtz, director of marketing and communications at Teach Coalition, (973) 280-7582, zisholtzr@teachcoalition.org.