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Election Continued from Page 1
did to elect Biden and Kamala
Harris, and the events of the
past week.

Dan Siegel, Pennsylvania
Jewish outreach director,
Biden for President
Since Siegel joined the Biden
campaign over the summer, his
job has consisted primarily of
conversations. It’s a common
misconception, he said, that
successful campaigns are built
on telling people how to vote.

What he and his team have
found effective is the simple act
of talking to people about what
they care about.

In the case of Jewish voters
that Siegel and the campaign
tried to reach in Pennsylvania,
what they cared about was
Israel, anti-Semitism and
Jewish values. Bringing those
people together via Zoom
meant letting people talk to one
another about what issues felt
most pressing as the election
approached. “It was designed to have people
express themselves Jewishly, and
as Americans,” Siegel said.

On the morning that his
work paid off, Siegel popped
champagne bottles with his
South Philadelphia neighbors
before walking toward City
Hall to take it all in. The shared
feeling of the crowd, he said,
was relief.

Hailie Soifer, executive
director, Jewish Democratic
Council of America
If you’re a Jewish Democrat
in Pennsylvania, it’s likely
that Soifer and the Jewish
Democratic Council of America
called or texted you in the last
few months. And even if you
somehow escaped that, then
you probably saw one of their
digital ads. That’s what happens
when you make 150,000 calls
and texts and spend about
$150,000 in a single state, as the
JDCA did this year.

Both of those numbers repre-
sented a significant chunk of
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she was hesitant to commit to
phone banking.

“I like that he says that he’s
not a red or blue president,”
Schmidt said. “He’ll be a presi-
dent for all of the United States.

And I don’t think those are idle
words.” CALL (215) 887-0877
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■ Rachel Beck’s view of a rally to “count every vote.”
JDCA’s expended resources this
election cycle, reflecting how
important the organization
understood Pennsylvania to be
to the Biden campaign’s chances
of victory. JDCA partnered
with groups like Democratic
Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania
to ensure that Democrats would
not lose the state and the election
by the same agonizingly slim
margin that they did in 2016.

For Soifer, Biden’s victory was
a chance to take her children
down to the major celebrations
in downtown D.C. The joy,
the jubilation and flag-waving
wasn’t just novel for them, but
for their mother, too.

“I’ve never seen anything
like it,” Soifer said.

Michael Solomonov, chef,
co-owner, CookNSolo
It actually doesn’t take all that
long to whip up 1,000 orders
of hummus, if you’re locked in
and ready to go. Really, just a
few hours. At least, that’s what
Solomonov said about Director
of Culinary Operations Caitlin
McMillan, who filled the big
order, made by Siegel on behalf
of voters standing in line on
Election Day.

And for those who weren’t
lucky enough to get any
Photo by Rachel Beck
Rachel Beck, organizer, teen
programs coordinator at
Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel
Beck knew she had one
small window of opportunity
to make a quick run to the
bathroom on Nov. 7; her job for
the day was to clean up after a
rally down by Independence
Mall. Emerging from the
visitor center, she heard a voice
that made her run back to her
friends in the street: it was
Rabbi Annie Lewis, giving the
wrap-up address for the day.

“That’s my rabbi!” Beck
yelled. “That rally in particular was
just such a powerful unity of
labor and organizers in the
faith community, and it just felt
like really bringing together a
lot. That’s really important to
me,” Beck said. “And that was
just a great moment.”
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by the deepest political divisions
since the Civil War,” Zipin wrote
in the Jewish Exponent a few
weeks ago. But even if you hadn’t
read those words, you could’ve
deduced Zipin’s determination
by taking a look at the work
of Democratic Jewish Outreach
Pennsylvania, which fundraised,
phone banked and advertised
with great intensity over the last
few months.

“I’m really, really proud
of how we, as an organiza-
tion, organized the Jewish
community in the state of
Pennsylvania to push Joe Biden
towards victory,” she said.

hummus, there were 4,000
doughnuts from Federal Donuts
being distributed as well.

Solomonov explained that
while CookNSolo refrained
from marshaling resources
on behalf of electoral politics
in the past, this year felt too
important to sit out.

Over the last few months,
Solomonov’s been a part of Jill Zipin, founder and chair,
a Zoom cook-along with Democratic Jewish Outreach
Democratic Rep. Debbie Pennsylvania
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; Wasserman Schultz, and hosted
“We are a nation torn asunder 215-832-0740
an event alongside Democratic
state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

Just a few weeks ago, Doug
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Emhoff, husband of Kamala
Harris, spoke in support of
Biden outside Zahav.

Susan Schmidt, psychologist
Schmidt, who is “mostly
retired,” still practices psychology
in Bryn Mawr. This year, she
applied to serve on a Biden
campaign subcommittee that
explored ideas about how to
implement improvements to
mental health services in schools.

It was a family affair, in a way; her
sister, an attorney in Connecticut,
served on a subcommittee as well.

A lifelong Democrat,
Schmidt would’ve
been prepared to knock on doors,
if not for the pandemic, but
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