Jews Love to Complain, But What Are We Doing About It?

Voice N tes Jews Love to Complain, But What are We Doing About It?

By Jonathan Katz

It goes back all the way to yetzias Mitzrayim and the time we spent together in the desert all those years ago. Our people love to complain about the conditions that we find ourselves in. While there was little individuals could do to remedy the water situation in Marah, we live in a time and a place where we have a voice and the opportunity to express ourselves in a way most of our grandparents and the generations before them never dreamed possible: We can vote.

That being said, our community typically doesn’t turn out when given that chance. While the reason often given is “I live in New York, my vote doesn’t matter” that couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to local elections. Take the most recent Hewlett-Woodmere School Board election – roughly one in three eligible votes were cast in this past May’s school board and budget vote. While that was a big increase, approximately 33% from the prior year, and we did finally elect a representative from our community, there is broad based outrage about rising school taxes and lack of services and representation for nonpublic school students compared to District 15. The budget passed by a mere 309 votes!

We have the numbers to sway elections, and officials notice. Case in point was the last Nassau County Executive election in 2021, which was decided by fewer than 6,500 votes in an off-year election that saw less than 30% voter turnout in a County of almost 1 million registered voters. A more than 50% increase vs. 2017 in turnout from the Five Towns most likely swayed the election for Bruce Blakeman over Laura Curran.

Going back to just prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic, I helped to start the HALB Political Awareness Council with the support of our Board and with other motivated parents. The mission is simple: 1) Identify the issues that impact our Yeshiva that can be addressed by local and state politicians and educate our parent body on those issues; 2) Meet with both local elected officials and candidates for office to express our cares and concerns; 3) Maximize voter turnout to ensure these issues are being addressed by our elected officials.

In the time since, we have met with police and county officials to secure crossing guards to keep our students safe, we were added the Nassau County Health Department’s COVID-19 school task force, and we have been hosting a series of Town Halls and Fireside Chats with incumbent and challenger candidates in the weeks leading up to Election Days to raise awareness on key election issues. This year, the Young Israel of Woodmere joined our efforts as Rabbi Shalom Axlerod recognized the importance of voter education and turnout.

Over the last two years, we have had town halls or fireside chats with candidates and incumbents for almost every race in our community, including Bruce Blakeman, Laura Curran, Todd Kaminsky, Kathleen Rice, and many others. This year, we spoke with Anthony D’Esposito, Laura Gillen, Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Ken Moore, Ari Brown ,and Michael Delury to ensure HALB and YIW families were well informed of critical issues ahead of Election Day. Invitations to participate were circulated to most shuls in the neighborhood as well. The discussions were nonpartisan and questions to the candidates were both direct and objective, aimed at addressing issues critical to each race.

There is also a constituency from HALB, and other yeshivot in our community that have been working closely with the OU’s Teach NYS, which is a nonpartisan, single-issue grassroots movement devoted to advocating for government funding and resources for nonpublic schools. These efforts have led to more than $5 million in STEM funding over the last three years for Long Island and Far Rockaway yeshivot, with the annual allocation set to rise in the coming years as well as expanded security funding. This is real money that has had, and can continue to have, a real impact on tuition costs. Wouldn’t we like to have our state legislators fighting for issues and dollars that directly impact our community’s livelihood and wallets? It’s not an impossibility, but we need voter turnout, and better yet voter engagement, to even begin to consider that.

In the current election on November 8, residents of the Five Towns will be voting on Governor (Hochul vs. Zeldin), U.S. Congressman (D’Esposito vs. Gillen), State Senator (Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick vs. Moore), State Assemblyman (Brown vs. Delury), and a few other local officials. Issues on the ballot in this election include religious freedom in our yeshivot, local tax policy, zoning/ overcrowding, roads and traffic, crime and policing, and the criminal justice system. These are the things that arguably impact our daily lives even more than the national issues.

I encourage others to join us in these efforts – whether it be leaders at other local yeshivot, yeshivos (sometimes the difference between a “t” and an “s” can seem pretty big), shuls or any other community organizations. To be somewhat cliché, we know this will be a marathon and not a sprint, but we need to start somewhere.

Please remember to vote on (or before) November 8 so our elected officials know that our community’s needs should be their priority.

Also, feel free to contact me at jonathankatz4@gmail.com if your local institution would like to join these efforts in a more organized way.