16 | OCTOBER 29 • 2020
W
ith Election Day in
a few days, Jewish
college students
across Michigan are still in the
process of voting early or mak-
ing their plans to vote Nov. 3.
At the University of Michigan
and Michigan State University,
campus Hillels are helping those
students in every way possible,
acting as a source of informa-
tion in an important time.
Both U-M Hillel and MSU
Hillel are putting their election
efforts into Hillel International’
s
MitzVote, a nonpartisan get-
out-the-vote campaign provid-
ing students with the education
and resources they need to
mobilize and vote in the 2020
election.
U-M Hillel Chair Sarah
Pomerantz says one of the ways
they’
ve encouraged students to
vote is through Shabbat meal
handouts, where upperclassmen
will pick up meals while U-M
Hillel provides stamps, enve-
lopes and forms for registration
and absentee applications.
“Our goal there was to get as
many [students] registered as
possible,
” Pomerantz said.
On Oct. 19, the final day for
voter registration in Michigan,
U-M Hillel had a table set up at
the center of campus with regis-
tration materials, answering any
questions and directing students
to where they can vote early on
campus.
The following day, in col-
laboration with Ohio State
University’
s Hillel, U-M Hillel
held a “Why Vote?” election
discussion panel with special
guests, including former U.S.
Ambassador to Israel Dan
Shapiro and former Michigan
State Sen. Gilda Jacobs. The
event centered around the
importance of voting and how
Jewish values play into that.
U-M Hillel is also using
MotiVote, a platform that aims
to get people registered and
increase voter turnout “by
making the journey more easy,
social and fun.
”
Participants get placed into
teams, and teams get points
when participants complete
specific tasks such as checking
voting registration through the
platform, by making a specific
voting plan on the platform,
and more.
“It’
s a vote-based competition
and a way to keep track of what
you have done and still need to
do, and it does some recruiting
work for poll workers as well,
”
Pomerantz said.
While promoting voting has
its obvious difficulties during a
pandemic, Pomerantz believes
it’
s also opened new opportuni-
ties for U-M Hillel.
“Before, I probably wouldn’
t
have considered any program
with OSU Hillel, and I think
as far as being able to get inter-
esting people to speak with us,
it becomes not that big of an
ask to jump on a Zoom call for
an hour instead of flying out
and staying here overnight,
”
Pomerantz said. “We’
re asking
less of their time, and we’
re able
to put on a program that oth-
erwise people wouldn’
t get to
experience.
”
Nate Strauss, director of
Jewish Student Life of MSU
Hillel, says they’
re also put-
ting all their efforts into the
MitzVote campaign.
On Nov. 2, the day before
Election Day, MSU Hillel is
holding an event to celebrate
voting. That event will also be
an opportunity for students to
attend and make a plan on how
they’
ll vote in-person the fol-
lowing day.
“Whether that’
s taking a Lyft,
because Lyfts are free to the
polls on Election Day, or if they
need a friend to wait in line
with them or something like
that, we’
re happy to coordinate
that,
” Strauss said.
Strauss says MSU Hillel has
been focusing on having lots of
individual conversations with
students about voting, especially
on the logistics side of things,
and being a source of informa-
tion more than anything.
Prior to the election, MSU
Hillel created multiple social
media campaigns discussing
how voting is a Jewish value and
providing a prayer for voting
the day before the election.
Strauss estimates 85-90% of
Jewish MSU students whom
MSU Hillel has interacted with
have voted early or absentee.
As a result of so many stu-
dents voting early and not all of
them necessarily receiving an
“I Voted” sticker, MSU Hillel
is providing hundreds of “I
MitzVoted” stickers that they’
ll
be giving to students who voted
early.
“Students like that, and they
like to post on social media
about the fact that they voted,
so we’
re excited about that,
”
Strauss said.
Strauss had conversations
with MSU students who will
be voting in the presidential
election for the first time this
year and was impressed with
how hyper-informed and hyper-
aware the young voters are.
“They said this is such a
monumental election, they feel
like it was completely normal
and natural to vote in it, rather
than it being this new unknown
kind of thing,
” he said. “It’
s
really exciting and interesting to
see that students are not view-
ing this as just ‘
this is my right
to vote’
but ‘
this is my duty to
vote.
’
”
Both U-M and MSU Hillels
are using Hillel International’s
MitzVote campaign.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
Hillel Groups
Promote Voting
on Campus
MSU HILLEL INSTAGRAM
IN
THED
JEWS
MitzVote campaign