With primary elections in Florida just days away, Agudath Israel of America’s Florida office has kicked into high gear a campaign to mobilize the state’s Orthodox Jewish communities to get out the vote on January 29.  According to Agudath Israel of Florida director Rabbi Moshe Matz, efforts include urging shul rabbonim to talk to their congregants about the importance of voting, sponsoring “get-out-the-vote” poster campaigns in Orthodox neighborhoods, sending out flyers and e-mails, and recruiting volunteers to make phone calls reminding Orthodox voters to make their voices heard on primary day.

An Agudath Israel campaign encouraging constituents to register and vote was also mounted in Michigan in advance of that state’s primary on January 15. And, says Rabbi AD Motzen, director of Agudah’s Ohio Regional office – which also services Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri — with a February 4th voter registration deadline looming for the  March 4 primary in Ohio, his office is now engaged in a concerted effort to encourage constituents to register to vote.

Agudath Israel offices serving New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois, and other states among the more than 20 scheduled to hold their primary contests on “Super Tuesday,” February 5, are also stepping up their get-out-the-vote drives; similar Agudah campaigns will be waged in the coming months in such places as Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas and other states with substantial Orthodox populations.

“Every day, lawmakers across the country consider legislation and policy that can have considerable impact on our lives and our communities, positive and otherwise,” says Agudath Israel national director of government affairs Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, noting that, “communities that vote are communities that are listened to and heard.

“That’s the message we are working to get out to our constituents around the country.”
 
The Agudah representative also points out that many Gedolei Yisroel, both past and present, have stated that voting is an important religious obligation as well as a civic duty. In addition to those individual rabbinic statements, he reports, Agudath Israel of America’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah has now issued its own Kol Koreh to the broad Torah community.

Emphasizing the obligation “to be concerned about the interests of our fellow Jews,” the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah proclamation takes note of the “great accomplishments that American Jewry has attained with the help of Heaven through participation in the electoral process.” The Kol Koreh also speaks of voting as an expression of our “hakoras hatov” (appreciation) toward the United States of America.  (See below for full text of Kol Koreh.)

“The simple reality is that government officials look at which groups vote and often take their positions on the major issues of the day accordingly,” says Rabbi Kalish. “Securing political support with regard to the issues that deeply affect us – ensuring the security and wellbeing of our Jewish brethren in Eretz Yisroel, combating global anti-Semitism, maximizing government aid to our educational institutions, strengthening the moral climate of society, improving the quality of government services in our neighborhoods, protecting our communities and institutions against terrorism – depends on each and every registered voter taking the time to go to the polls.

“I’m often asked, ‘what can I do for Klal Yisroel?’ Well, this is one of the most important things you can do. Get out there and vote.”

**Kol Koreh Text**

A Public Alert to Our Fellow Jews in Our Country,
The United States of America

Gedolei Torah of previous generations have already proclaimed that every Jewish person should participate and vote in elections held in our benevolent country, the United States of America.  This is for several reasons.

First, it is incumbent on us to be concerned about the interests of our fellow Jews, and we have indeed merited to see great accomplishments that American Jewry has attained with the help of Heaven through participation in the electoral process.  Second, Divine providence has placed the United States today in the position of being the single greatest ally of the Jewish nation that lives in the Holy Land, concerned with protecting it from the “70 wolves” that surround it to destroy it, G-d forbid.

There is also the mandate of hakoras hatov (recognition of goodness), one of the bases of our belief, which makes it incumbent on us to express our gratitude to the benevolent country in which we dwell by participating in its elections.

Let no one free himself from that obligation with the argument that in a country as large as the United States his individual voice can make no difference.  For we have seen a number of elections, most notably the presidential election of only a few years ago, that were decided by only a few hundred votes.

May Hashem guard us and save us from all crisis and evil decree, and from the difficult times in which we live, so that we will merit, soon in our days, the arrival of the ultimate redeemer, and the fulfillment through us of “And all the nations of the land will see that upon you the name of Hashem is called.”

The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in America
Sh’vat, 5768

——————————
קול קורא אל אחב”י במדינתנו ארה”ב
כבר הורו חכמים, גדולי תורה מדורות שלפנינו, שראוי לכל בן ישראל להשתתף ולהצביע בבחירות במדינתנו של חסד, ארצות הברית. וזה מטעם כמה סיבות.

לראשונה, עלינו לדאוג לאינטרסים של אחינו בית ישראל, וכבר זכינו לראות בעבר את ההשגות הגדולות שהשיגו יהדות ארה”ב, בסייעתא דשמיא, בכח הבחירות שלה.  שנית, ההשגחה העליונה בימינו העמידה את ארה”ב כאומה העיקרית הדואגת על העם היושב בציון להצילו מה”שבעים זאבים” העומדים מסביבו לכלותו ר”ל.

ויש בזה גם ענין של הכרת הטוב, שהוא מיסודי הדת, ועלינו להביע הכרתינו להמלכות של חסד שבה אנו גרים על ידי השתתפותינו בבחירות.

ואל יפטר האדם את עצמו מחיובו לבחור עם הטענה שבארץ כל כך גדולה כמו ארה”ב אין הקול היחידי שלו מעלה ומוריד, כי כבר ראינו כמה בחירות, ובמיוחד הבחירות לנשיא של לפני שנים אחדות, שהוכרעו על ידי כמה מאות קולות.

ויה”ר שהקב”ה ישמרנו ויצילנו מכל צרה ומכל גזירה רעה, ומן השעות הקשות שבהן אנחנו חיים, ונזכה בקרוב בימינו לביאת גואל צדק, ויקויים בנו מה שנאמר “וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה’ נקרא עליך”.
מועצת גדולי התורה באמריקה
ב’ שבט, תשס”ח