A new group is launching a $7 million campaign to mobilize Jewish voters for New York City’s municipal elections — including the crucial race for mayor, The Post has learned.
The Jewish Voters Action Network will target voters in 12 City Council districts with a large concentration of Jewish residents to make sure they get to the polls. Every council seat is up for grabs this year. There also are races for mayor, comptroller and public advocate.
The group’s multi-pronged effort will focus first on trying to get independent and Republican Jewish voters to officially switch to the Democratic Party so they can participate in the heavily Democratic city’s June 24 Dem primary races amid a local rise in antisemitism.
Such an effort could make a big difference because overall turnout at the Democratic primaries is usually low — and whoever wins the Dem primaries in races such as for City Hall usually score in November.
The deadline to re-register in a different party in Feb. 14.
The push will include ads on cable, digital and social media, text messaging and direct mail.
The second phase of the effort involves partnering with local institutions and volunteer groups to organize and mobilize Jewish voters to get them to go to the polls.
Maury Litwack, founder of the Jewish Voters Action Network, was instrumental in galvanizing Jewish voters to help moderate Democrat George Latimer defeat lefty firebrand and anti-Israel incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman in last year’s Democratic primary for the House District 16 encompassing much of Westchester and parts of The Bronx.
The group that Litwack headed at the time, the Teach Coalition affiliated with the Orthodox Jewish Union, also targeted voters in Jewish enclaves in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Nevada, where President-elect Donald Trump picked up a larger share of votes than previous Republican presidential candidates.
The winner of the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City will likely determine who is the next mayor, and that’s why the Jewish Voters Action Network is focusing its efforts there, too, Litwack said.
“Jewish voters are waking up to the realization that Democratic primaries are determined by low turnout,” Litwack told The Post on Sunday.
New York City’s 1 million Jews represent the largest number of the faith of any municipality in the country.
While the group is non-partisan, Litwack was blunt in countering politicians who don’t take antisemitism seriously or who toe the line of the lefty anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA sponsored an anti-Israel rally in Times Square a day after Hamas attacked Israel and slaughtered 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
“A majority of Jewish people don’t agree with the DSA’s positions and platforms and find many of their positions to be deeply troubling,” Litwack said.
He intends to have thousands of volunteers to knock on doors to persuade Jews to vote, just as the DSA boasts of its grassroots operation.
Jewish voters are largely common-sense voters, according to Litwack.
“The Jewish community is able to make positive change when they come out and vote,” he said.
Declared Democratic candidates for mayor include incumbent Eric Adams, who is fighting federal corruption charges, city Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos, DSA-backed Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and lawyer Jim Walden.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo is mulling a run for mayor, too.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is all but certain to seek the Republican nomination again for mayor. He lost to Adams in the general election in 2021 but has raised his profile as the Guardian Angels return to monitoring the violence-ridden subway system.
