Organizing the Jewish Vote: Building a Left Jewish Electoral Flank
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Friday, Oct. 8 2:15 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Friday, Oct. 8 3:15 PM (Eastern)
In recent years, Jewish grassroots organizations (Bend the Arc, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Jews United for Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow) have created c4s and PACs to engage Jews in targeted electoral fights. We’ll explore lessons from using primaries in heavily Jewish districts to elect strong progressives, such as The Jewish Vote’s growth from a base of Jewish seniors active on long-term care to a key partner in Jamaal Bowman’s win over Eliot Engel. We’ll discuss the role this organizing can play in a broad progressive coalition; disrupting conventional assumptions around Jewish priorities and leadership; and how we build alongside campaigns to respond to anti-Semitism, its weaponization, and white nationalism.
Moderator
Katie Unger
Katie Unger is a co-Founder and Steering Committee member of The Jewish Vote.
She is an independent strategic advisor and trainer for movement organizations and a fourth-generation activist based in NYC. She works with groups to build capacity for strategic research, facilitate powerful campaign design and planning, and leadership development. She’s an expert trainer on research and strategy. Her current and past clients include the nation’s largest online civil rights and voting rights organizations, Movement School, Partnership for Working Families, Majority Action, New York Communities for Change, the National Employment Law Project and more. Katie spent more than a decade developing powerful campaigns against corporations in the fast-food, laundry and other industries, including as Deputy Director of Strategic Affairs for the Change to Win labor federation, and worked in City government on universal pre-K and paid sick leave.
Panelists
Carlyn Cowen
Carlyn Cowen (they/she/siya) is an advocate, activist, and Filipinx-American dedicated to building social, racial, and economic justice through radical systemic change. By day, Carlyn works as the Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), the nation’s largest Asian-American social services organization, where they oversee public policy, advocacy, and community engagement. They serve on the steering committee of The Jewish Vote, a political project of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) to build power on the Jewish left. They can also be found organizing with the Democratic Socialists of America, doing mutual aid with Uptown Wagon, working to pass the New York Health Act and tax the rich, and cooking and baking.
Jaslin Kaur
Jaslin Kaur is an Organizer at Know Your IX where she leads federal civil rights trainings for student survivors of gender-based violence. She also co-organizes with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) campaign for taxi medallion debt relief. She is in service of the multiracial working class, having worked from political education with Sadie Nash Leadership Project to immigrant justice and reproductive justice with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.
Recently, Jaslin ran for New York City Council, campaigning on transportation access, affordable housing, and relief for gig workers, amassing supporting from Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Jaslin holds a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies and Human Rights from CUNY Hunter College and an A.A. from Nassau Community College. In her free time, she enjoys martial arts, yoga, and Formula 1 racing.
Other sessions: Bridging Cultural Disconnects as a Progressive Candidate of Color