JUFJniks are some cool folks to do voter education with.
Last week, JUFJ-Baltimore held one of our monthly community convenings – this one zooming in on the election.
Dozens of JUFJniks came to Bolton Street Synagogue to teach and learn from each other about how to put our progressive, Jewish values into action. JUFJ volunteers and close allies ran stations ranging from the value of civic engagement and the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) work happening in Baltimore, to education around the offices and ballot measures up for grabs in November, to the JUFJ campaign issues that may be at stake this November. And as promised since August, we finally learned why a Register of Wills is even something we vote on in the first place! (Hint: the position has a less-than-savory history with Baltimore’s political machines).
It felt great to be surrounded by people who share my values in a moment when all of the campaign politics swirling around can feel downright overwhelming. But just as important as the voter education was the takeaway that the election is not where our political engagement stops.
Voting is important! Registration is over, but you can still register same-day during early voting (from October 25-November 1); and of course, if you are already registered, Election Day is on November 6.
But when the dust clears on November 7, JUFJ is still going to be around, and work will still need to be done — in fact, we’ll be gearing up for the busiest time of year, the Maryland state legislative session in January 2019.
I hope that after the election, our next convening on November 13th can help mobilize all of the JUFJniks who came out last week. Word on the street is that the November convening will focus on JUFJ’s upcoming meetings with our state legislators, where we’ll get a head start on holding all the people we elect accountable to our progressive agenda. Come show that our activism doesn’t stop when the work is just getting started!
