Don’t kvetch — vote!
A group seeking to mobilize Jewish voters in the city’s upcoming June 24 primary elections including for mayor is launching a $500,000 TV and social-media ad campaign to try to drive up turnout amid rising antisemitism.
The narrator of a 30-second video spot titled “Hate Crimes” that is part of the push says, “This June, the safety and security of the Jewish community is on the ballot.”
The ad, obtained exclusively by The Post, starts running Monday and is paid for by Jewish Voters Unite.
It rattles off stats showing the increase in local Jewish hate crimes, including vandalism at the Jewish-owned Effy’s Cafe on the Upper West Side, and displays video of a Jewish man being attacked in Brooklyn.
The ad will appear on commercial and cable news networks including Fox News Channel, CNN, NY1 and News 12. It will also be streamed on YouTube, Hulu, Roku, Spotify and Pandora and appear on Facebook, Instagram and X.
The ad campaign is part of Jewish Voters Unite’s larger “Voting is How We Fight Back” get-out-the Jewish vote effort.
The group, run by Jewish activist Maury Litwack, has 700 volunteers and more than a dozen paid staffers.
“This is a pivotal moment for the Jewish community. This Jewish community feels antisemitism,” Litwack said.
“This primary election provides an opportunity to do something about it. Jewish voters are not sitting on the sidelines. We’re expecting there will be a historic turnout and believe Jewish voters will be the story of this primary election.”
Jewish Voters Unite will soon open its fourth site in heavily Jewish central Queens, joining its existing offices in Brooklyn and on Manhattan’s East and West sides.
Canvassers are handing out “Don’t kvetch, vote” merchandise including hats, cups and wristbands.
While the group is nonpartisan and not backing any particular candidate, Litwack, a staunch critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, spearheaded a similar campaign last year that drove up Jewish turnout in Westchester County, helping moderate George Latimer defeat Israel-bashing ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary.
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.
So a larger Jewish turnout at the polls could be kryptonite for Big Apple mayoral DSA candidate Zohran Mamdani, who supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and has joined in at anti-Israel rallies.
But a big Jewish turnout could aid ex-Gov., Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic mayoral front-runner in recent polls, as well as former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and current Comptroller Brad Lander, both of whom are Jewish.
The ad campaign will also reach voters in northern New Jersey, which has a considerable number of Jewish residents who are urged to vote in their state’s upcoming competitive Democratic and Republican primary races for governor.
“We want to turn out every Jewish voter,” Litwack said.
A related but independent Litwack-led group — the Jewish Voters Action Network — helped register nearly 7,000 Jewish New York City residents as Democrats ahead of the June mayoral primary, The Post reported last month.
More than 4,130 of the Jewish voters who signed on with the Democratic Party — and thus are allowed to vote in the primary — were previously registered as independent or belonged to the Republican or another party.
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