The data has been sliced and diced a million different ways in the aftermath of last week’s highly-charged presidential election, with pundits and commentators expounding on how Donald Trump managed to, once again, emerge victorious in a contest that prognosticators insisted he couldn’t possibly win. Among the many takeaways from Election 2024 that is gaining consensus is one focusing on the Orthodox Jewish community, which came out strongly for Trump, and demonstrates that this important demographic that will cross party lines to vote for the candidates that best serve its needs.
While Jews have long leaned staunchly Democratic, the party’s leftward shift has had many in the Orthodox community identifying more closely with Republicans’ more conservative ideologies over the last few decades. But for the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, whose advocacy efforts to benefit Jewish educational institutions rely on having solid working relationship with elected officials, partisanship isn’t nearly as important as getting as many members of the tribe as possible into the voting booth.
Having successfully tested the proverbial waters in 2023 state-level races in New Jersey and New York’s Westchester County, Teach Coalition was all in on the November general election. Zeroing in on five strategically targeted communities where critical state and local races were being held, Teach Coalition set up voting centers in the Five Towns (New York), Lower Merion (Pennsylvania), Beverly Hills (California), and Boca Raton and Hollywood (Florida.) Mobile units were sent out in California and Florida to reach an even larger number of voters, and Teach Coalition also had its boots on the ground in Henderson (Nevada), in lieu of establishing a brick-and-mortar center in the Las Vegas area.
“The idea was to have a non-partisan effort to ensure that voter turnout was high, so that Jewish voices could be heard,” Dan Mintzner, director of government affairs for Teach Coalition, told The Jewish Press. “There were many, many races of consequence, not just the presidential race, and it was our duty, based off of the amazing work done in prior races, to ensure that we got creatively out.”
Leveraging its local arms, Teach Coalition partnered with Jewish federations, shuls and schools, designating point people in each one who would encourage their family, friends, neighbors and members to vote, whether it was by absentee ballot, early voting or heading to the polls on Election Day. Relying on an app called UpVote, which tracks people’s voter registration and records whether they have voted, though not who they voted for, Teach Coalition’s “captains” were able to hone in on which individuals in their immediate circles needed gentle voting reminders.
“Your voter status is public information, and having that information was very, very impactful,” explained Mintzner. “It made people into ‘super-volunteers,’ and almost like ‘professional noodges.’”
The results were rather impressive. In some places, captains got everyone on their lists registered and into the polls, while other captains, the voter turnout was as high as 80 or 90 percent, well above state averages.
“We saw across the board in every state that the Jewish vote was significantly higher than the state average,” said Mintzner in a November 8 phone interview. “In Nevada, our targeted voters turned out at a rate of 86 percent, while the state reported rate was 68 percent. They’re still collecting ballots in California, but so far, communities targeted by our LA Unites voted at rates above 60 percent, compared with 47.5 percent statewide.”
Teach Coalition also went the traditional route, sending out mailers and text messages, and utilizing phone banks and canvassers, to create what Mintzner described as a “surround sound” effect for voters to supplement the peer-to-peer effort.
“The places where we did that, we saw massive numbers – 96 percent, 93 percent – all because of employing those additional tactics,” said Mintzner.
West Hempstead resident Sergey Kadinsky is one of Teach Coalition’s NY Unites captains and was actively involved in getting his friends and neighbors out to vote. As one of about 30 point-people in an area that focused on the Five Towns, Far Rockaway, West Hempstead, and Long Island’s nearby Jewish communities, Kadinsky made sure to remind gabbaim and rabbanim in the shuls he frequents to issue election reminders at the pulpit, by email and via WhatsApp. While presidential elections typically draw more voters than those in other years, there was a concern that Trump supporters would stay home, knowing that New York’s electoral votes would still end up going to Harris, no matter how they voted.
West Hempstead residents were also voting in another important race, with incumbent Republican Anthony D’Esposito facing off against challenger Laura Gillen in the contest to represent the 4th Congressional District in Washington. With both proving themselves as friends of the Jewish community, choosing a candidate was less clear cut than in some other races for voters, and Gillen edged out D’Esposito by a margin of just under two percent. Kadinsky is hopeful that the new congressional representative took note of the Orthodox Jewish community’s large turnout at the polls, which included 90 percent voter participation from the Young Israel of West Hempstead and strong numbers from other area shuls as well.
“She now understands that the Orthodox vote cannot be ignored,” observed Kadinsky. “She has two years to demonstrate to Jewish voters that she will be the outspoken voice for our interests, or she will lose her job.”
Kadinsky credits Teach Coalition for placing a strong emphasis on explaining the importance of voting, as well as making registration fast and easy.
“Voting is the best evidence of visibility, and here on Long Island, the presidential and congressional election came and went, but we still have county and town and village offices, all of which are important sources of resources that our community needs every year,” explained Kadinsky. “Voting isn’t something you do every four years – it is every year, for every office.”
There is no doubt that Orthodox Jewish communities made their voices heard last week. While Trump may not have won New York’s electoral votes, his 55 percent of the vote in Rockland County was 13.4 percentage points higher than the 2020 election, and also includes the overwhelming support of New Square, where just .01 percent of the population voted for Harris. And while Trump earned just 27.6 percent of the vote in Brooklyn, BoroPark24 reported that 87.58 percent of Boro Park and 75.65 percent of Williamsburg voters cast their ballots for Trump, far exceeding the borough’s average.
A similar surge of red appeared on voting maps in other Orthodox areas as well. As many as 98 percent of voters in Lakewood’s yeshiva communities voted for Trump, according to one source, who also noted that 80 to 90 percent of Teaneck’s Jewish voters cast their ballots for Trump, flying in the face of pre-election polls claiming that Modern Orthodox voters were firmly behind Harris. That phenomenon appeared in other parts of the country as well, with the true-blue Democratic strongholds of Chicago and Cleveland both displaying pockets of red where their Jewish communities cast their ballots for Trump in significant numbers.
“The shift toward the GOP in the Jewish vote, which is very real, is being rewarded,” observed John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary magazine, on X (Twitter), reflecting on how many of Trump’s early proposed national security cabinet choices are very pro-Israel.
With the Orthodox community demonstrating its willingness to make its voice heard, Teach Coalition is already looking ahead to the future. New York City’s mayoral primary in June and election in November is another pivotal race, one that could have significant ramifications for the five boroughs’ large Jewish population. Teach Coalition fully intends to continue pressing ahead, encouraging Orthodox Jews, not to cast their ballots for any candidate in particular, but rather to just get out there and vote, making it clear to political hopefuls that they are a constituency worth catering to.
“The important thing is to vote, not just by party or by candidate, but for every office on every level, so that each one should see the visibility of our community,” observed Kadinsky.
