Please see the letter above (or here) issued by a group of choshuve NYC-based Rabbonim in connection with the city’s upcoming mayoral election.
And please do what you can to spread and promote their urgent message of the importance of voting – in all elections, but especially in this one.
Text of the letter:
To our dear Jewish brethren in New York City,
Leading poskim throughout the generations have expressed the obligation to vote, calling it a fundamental responsibility to guard the freedoms we enjoy.
We, the undersigned rabbonim in New York City, watch the upcoming mayoral election in New York City with trepidation. Attacks on Jews have surged both locally and across the world. Dangerous rhetoric, at all levels, has become commonplace. Our chinuch in New York remains in jeopardy. That support for the security of Jews in Eretz Yisroel is being debated in mainstream political circles is deeply concerning; that this debate is occurring at the center of the largest concentration of Jews outside of Eretz Yisroel is frightening. We have already seen its pernicious impact on our own safety.
Any general obligation to vote has taken on new meaning in these times. Moreover, this race has garnered national attention, and its result is sure to have national electoral ripple effects.
Note that this hishtadlus is required regardless of the election’s outcome. The only hedge spurring a candidate with future political aspirations to moderate his stance is for him to know that he has a large, motivated voting constituency to contend with.
Local, regional, and national Orthodox Jewish organizations are thus mobilizing to ensure unprecedented voting participation in our communities. Such a turnout would be a powerful demonstration of the koach hatzibbur at this critical time.
We therefore implore every member of the community to engage in this important hishtadlus, and to organize and activate your families, shuls, yeshivas, and kehillos to do the same.