I know if you voted

News & Information for the Week of

October 25th - 30th, 2020

I know if you voted

Rabbi A.D. Motzen

National Director of State Relations

I know if you voted.

In my neighborhood, I can even get a daily update of who requested an absentee ballot and when they returned it, and who voted early in person. Elected officials and political campaigns have that information too, and closely monitor which communities vote.

(Click on image to watch video message about voting from our executive vice president Rabbi Zwiebel)

Over the last few months Agudah staff across the United States have put considerable effort into voter registration and get out the vote efforts. We published voter registration information and absentee voting deadlines for every state, a voting guide for citizens residing overseas, and responded to hundreds of questions, especially from those living and studying in Israel. We registered voters, sent out countless emails, operated phone banks, shared letters from rabbinic leaders, offered our thoughts about voting to the media, and asked leaders of schools and synagogues to encourage their communities to vote.

Now it’s your turn.

Please make sure to vote on Tuesday (or before) and make sure that your friends and family join you.

In late breaking news on Friday, after weeks of negotiations, community-led testing initiatives, and legal proceedings, Agudath Israel is happy to report that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo just released a plan for schools in red and orange zones to reopen.

Specifically, mass testing will be required before school reopens, followed by weekly testing. The state will provide free rapid-result test kits for schools wishing to participate. Details to follow.

Thank you to Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein and the other elected officials and advocates who have been championing this cause.

We look forward to working with the yeshiva community and the governor’s office to help implement this plan to reopen our precious yeshivos. And as rates of infection in our neighborhoods continue to decline, we look forward for other parts of our community to safely reopen.

As part of our ongoing litigation on behalf of New York synagogues, Agudath Israel of America announced this week that four amicus curiae (friend of the court” briefs) have been filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit supporting Agudath Israel’s position defending religious freedom (see our brief here). The briefs were filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty joined by the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty; the Muslim Public Affairs Council joined by the Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team, and Asma Uddin, on behalf of the Islamic community; Torah Umesorah, the National Society of Hebrew Day Schools; and the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.

Agudath Israel is seeking injunctive relief against a New York State executive order limiting houses of worship attendance. To read why Agudath Israel is turning to the courts on this issue during a pandemic, see Avrohom Weinstock's op-ed here.

Meanwhile, in nearby New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy is being praised for how he handled an uptick in Lakewood by working together with the Orthodox community's leadership including our New Jersey director Rabbi Avi Schnall. In a Politico article that discussed the success of what the Governor called “the Lakewood model,” it pointed out that the “number of new cases reported in the township dropped from almost 200 on Sept. 29…to just 5 on Oct. 27.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Agudath Israel’s leadership has issued many statements encouraging masking, social distancing, and other public health measures which can be found here.

An article in the New Jersey Link this week described our New Jersey Office’s role in securing millions of dollars of additional funding for special education services in New Jersey. In it, our New Jersey Office director Rabbi Avi Schnall describes the steps taken to increase funding. You can read the article here.

Hair discrimination? Listen to the audio recording of our Director of New York Government Relations Rabbi Yeruchim Silber testify on the proposed New York City rule governing hair discrimination based on race and religion.

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Agudath Israel of America's division of government affairs is engaged in advocacy and legislative outreach activities on the local, state, and federal levels. In so doing, Agudath Israel seeks to protect the rights and advance the interests of observant Jews and their growing network of educational and religious institutions; and to offer a uniquely Orthodox Jewish perspective on contemporary issues of public concern.

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