Hacham Ovadiah Yosef Urges Everyone to Vote

Over the summer Rabbi Shimon Alouf, Rabbi of Congregation Ahaba Ve Ahva, searched for ways to make our community’s voice one that is heard. He felt that a strong community voter turnout in the upcoming presidential elections would be a proper action to take.

He contacted our great gaon and teacher Hacham Ovadiah Yosef and asked whether or not he should instruct his congregants to vote. The following is an excerpt from Rav Ovadiah’s response.

“In anticipation of your return to serving as Rabbi of Congregation Ahaba V' Ahva and Rosh Yeshivah of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn, New York, you posed a question to me regarding the upcoming elections in the United States. "In light of the fact that conflicting opinions exist among community leaders, should the Jewish communities fulfill their civic duty by voting and exerting their influence on the elections for President, the Senate and the House of Representatives?"

There are those who contend that it is inappropriate for Jews to become involved in these issues so as to avoid inciting the jealousy and hatred of Israel's enemies. And there are those who contend that, to the contrary, Jews must become involved and exert an influence because this can be extremely beneficial to those candidates who support Israel as well as to the Jewish citizens of both the United States and Israel.
You are of the opinion that the Jewish community must demonstrate its strength and influence in these issues. Sitting on the sidelines and refraining from playing an active role in the elections will cast negative aspersions upon our people; the Gentiles will say that the Jewish community is unconcerned about matters of state and are not loyal citizens. And indeed, in past years, prior to elections, it had been your practice to advise your community of their obligation to take stand and become actively involved through voting for those candidates favorable to Israel.

In my opinion, you acted correctly for in addition to the aforementioned reason, experience has proven that the when the election of a specific candidate can be attributed to Jewish influence, that candidate strives to demonstrate his support of Jewish interests, both in the United States and Eres Yisrael. During the previous generation, this position was taken by many of our Torah luminaries in the United States. In light of those reasons, they instructed their students to act and to vote and to participate in the electoral process for the benefit of our brethren, Bne Yisrael.
I advocate continuing this approach by instructing your congregants to vote as you did in previous years and to do their utmost to influence the election of those candidates who support Israel.

Signed: Rav Ovadiah Yosef.

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