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Anti-Defamation League, National Urban League joining forces to energize voters

Posted at 4:40 PM, Sep 04, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-04 16:40:02-04

The racial justice movement is inspiring hope and change.

Two of the oldest hate fighting and civil rights nonprofits are joining forces to build ties between Black and Jewish people.

“You can’t really fight one kind of hate unless you're going to fight all of them, right, so we can’t be saying anti-Semitism is bad and not be engaged right now in this great movement to challenge systemic racism,” said Shira Goodman with Anti-Defamation League Philadelphia.

The Anti-Defamation League and National Urban League are kicking off the partnership in Philadelphia.

They're starting a voting rights project trying to energize young voters.

They're using young leaders from both groups to recruit younger poll workers and produce mailers and social media videos encouraging people to exercise one of the greatest tools to change.

“We want to be able to give people accurate information and also hold each other accountable by having a voting plan, maybe having a buddy they are going to text back and forth, ‘did you go to the polls did you request your ballot?’”

Philadelphia is just the start of this partnership for equality. They're looking at future projects to promote economic empowerment, equal access to justice, update hate crime laws and address discrimination in housing and employment.

“It’s building on our shared histories as Blacks and Jews of having worked together, having both struggled in America and also saying we want to not sit on that history, we want to build a new future together,” said Goodman.

The partnership and focus come at critical time for minorities which tend to face more voter suppression.