This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
Even though they’re too young to vote, Shayne Cytrynbaum and Lucy Targum are running campaigns to get others to the polling booths.
Targum, 16, a junior at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, says her interest in community service comes from her Judaism. “The values that are really important to me about Judaism, like repairing the world, are really a driving force behind my interest in social justice,” she said.
While Targum and Cytrynbaum are just small parts of the larger get-out-the-vote movement, they see themselves as essential players in democracy. By organizing letter-writing events and recruiting poll workers, they hope to set an example for youth who may feel powerless.
A number of Jewish organizations have been running nonpartisan get-out-the-vote campaigns this year, including the National Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Future Alliance and the Jewish Electorate Institute. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs sponsors “The Chutzpah to Vote,” an initiative to get Jews and their allies to the polls.
“We’re living at a moment when so much is at stake: the safety and rights of countless communities, including Jews, the future of our planet, and democracy itself,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the JCPA. “Jewish teens, and all teens, are critical to the democratic process even if they’re not yet able to vote themselves.”
Along with her classmate Caroline Espinosa, Targum organized her first letter-writing event for her high school in mid-August. She partnered with Vote Forward, a non-profit organization that focuses on writing nonpartisan, handwritten letters to reach voters in swing states where former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are head to head in the polls.
Since then, Targum has organized four more similar events, sending 400 letters to Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“I wanted to do something and this was something that I could do,” she said. “I can’t vote in November, but I can write letters and I can encourage other people to vote.”
Cytrynbaum, 17, a senior at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey, says the Jewish value of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, got him interested in the climate crisis, which led him to the get-out-the-vote movement. “Any social justice issue you care about is going to be impacted by how much people get out to vote,” he said.
Cytrynbaum said the Jewish community has a long history as a relatively powerless minority, and flourished in pluralistic, democratic societies. “If you want to stay alive as a community and stay united, we need to respect diverse opinions,” said Cytrynbaum, who is a policy co-director with Jewish Youth Climate Movement.
This September, the Jewish Youth Climate Movement announced its 2024 election drive, “Shema Koleinu,” Hebrew for “hear our voices.” The drive mobilizes members to serve as poll workers, organize voter registration drives, call voters to get out the vote, and educate voters.
Cytrynbaum has been focusing on voter education and poll work in the week leading up to election day.
While Cytrynbaum was too young to work the polls in the 2020 election, he made a promise to himself that once he turned 16, the minimum age in New Jersey, he would sign up. Now 17, he’s recruited 14 kids to work at the polls, up from eight last year. And, within the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, he has recruited 38 people to do poll workers.
“Our democracy is stronger when everyone votes,” Targum said, “and when more people make their voice heard.”
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