SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-mitzvah-of-voting-edited-encore.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/ql3_Vi81NBwkvNT97SKZiyh8_yM?utm_source=copy_url

Four years ago in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, I ran a 3-part series called The Mitzvah of Voting. Here we are in 2024 in a presidential election year again and defending our democracy is more important than ever! Here's an edited encore presentation of that 2020 podcast, with all three parts combined and streamlined. You'll hear inspiring words and calls to action from some of your favorite authors, recorded in 2020 but as relevant as ever. We cap it off with Sarah Aroeste's Ladino song "Gracia" (English lyrics below), a tribute to the medieval Sephardic heroine, Doña Gracia Nasi who lived in the 1500's and saved hundreds of Jews from the Inquisition. The theme of the song is that activists of the past inspire us to activism in our own time. I hope you will be inspired to VOTE!

RESOURCES SUGGESTED BY GUESTS:

• Hold the Line: A Guide to Defending Democracy
• T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
• Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
• The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
• VoteRiders.org
• Become a poll worker
• Add your Representative and Senators to your cell phone and call regularly on issues you care about
• Confirm your voter registration at Vote.org
• The Matthew Shepard Foundation
• Reclaim Our Vote
• Doña Gracia Nasi

GUESTS: (See show notes for links to their websites and books)

• Marjorie Ingall
• Linda Epstein
• Jeff Gottesfeld
• Leslie Kimmelman
• Susan Kusel
• Tziporah Cohen
• Elissa Brent Weissman
• Lee Wind
• Barbara Bietz
• Jane Breskin Zalben
• Jacqueline Jules
• Anne-Marie Asner
• Gail Carson Levine
• Lesléa Newman
• Evan Wolkenstein
• Sue Macy
• Sarah Aroeste

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF GRACIA: 

You give us grace You give us life You give us promise You give us bravery You give us strength You give us defiance You give us command You give us voice You give us inspiration You give us esteem You give us value You give us admiration Chorus: Because of you we have the Honor, fight, effect; Because of you we stand with Power, height, respect Some have the deeds, some have the fame– You have both and the same.