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

