FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 19
Contact: Logan Smith
[email protected]
202-709-8825
Bend the Arc’s new campaign ad shows the power of our Tradition in the face of fear and division
New ad redefines 2020 election in context of Jewish history of activism for Jewish voters in swing states
WASHINGTON – Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released a new ad on Monday targeting Jewish voters in swing states.
The ad, titled “Tradition,” redefines the choice in front of voters in the 2020 election in the context of Jewish Americans’ long history of activism. The ad is part of a six-figure digital ad program reaching Jewish swing voters in states such as Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona — the same voters being reached by calls and texts nearly everyday by Bend the Arc volunteers.
“The last four years have been a trying, traumatic experience for many communities in this country, including ours, who have been insulted and threatened by this President and his enablers,” said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. “But our ancestors gave us the blueprint for moments like this. When we vote in this election it’s our turn to continue the long tradition of Jewish American activism that believes in the promise of a democracy where everyone can truly experience freedom, fairness, and belonging, no matter what we look like or where we come from.”
The ad seeks to inspire Jewish voters with words of visionary Jewish leaders like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Rabbi Joachim Prinz, and scenes of Jewish Americans rising up to face our challenges head-on throughout history, including labor protests in the early 20th Century, demonstrations against the Nazis, allyship during the Civil Rights era, as well as scenes from more recent Jewish protests of the Trump administration’s white nationalist policies in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.
“Resistance and survival are our birthright,” said Cotler. “Our people have survived genocide and fascism, deportation, and slavery. It’s time for Jewish Americans and our allies to rise up once again and build a country that is truly for all of us.”
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action’s “Vote Out Fear” voter contact program is mobilizing volunteers to hit 1.5 million voter contact attempts to persuade Jewish and swing state voters to vote for Biden and down-ballot Democrats in Florida, Georgia Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The “Vote Out Fear” voter contact effort and this digital ads program are part of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action’s “We Rise As One” campaign, a national mobilization of Jews and allies across the country rising up in solidarity to push white nationalism out of the halls of power, using persuasion language around antisemitism and white nationalism that voters wouldn’t otherwise hear from other campaigns or GOTV efforts.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is uniting a movement of tens of thousands of progressive Jews across the country who are fighting for justice and equality for all. We are the only national Jewish organization focused exclusively on social change in the United States.
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