In anticipation of Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes Kick-off Events on 8/20, 8/26, and 8/27 (register here), I am speaking with several faith leaders across Houston. Through these dialogues, faith leaders explore why voting is vital for their community, and why it’s a matter of faith.
Each week I’ll share how different leaders understand the connection between their faith and participation in democracy and why they feel called to mobilize their communities to engage in civic processes.
This week I spoke with Rabbi Joshua R. S. Fixler, Associate Rabbi at Congregation Emanu El, which is situated across the street from Rice University. Rabbi Fixler shared his thoughts on how voting is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition and why his congregation has channeled its energy toward increased voter turnout among its members.
Kyle Riley: How do you express your beliefs through voting?
Rabbi Joshua R. S. Fixler: Judaism has always believed that being a part of the society in which we live is crucial. This phrase appears multiple times in Jewish texts about praying for the government’s welfare. There is an understanding in Judaism that the health and welfare of the government are directly connected to the health and welfare of the Jewish community and the safety and security of the Jewish community.
Riley: What from your faith tradition do you point to when talking about the importance of participating in democracy, and specifically about voting?
Rabbi Fixler: This late 19th or early 20th century Rabbi is called the Chazon Ish. On an election day, he passed by a Jew he knew in the streets, and the Chazon Ish said, “Hey have you voted yet?” The man said, “No,” and the Chazon said, “Why?” He said, “Well, I didn’t have the money to pay the poll tax.” The Chazon Ish asked him, “Well do you have tefillin?” (Tefillin is the leather box and straps that many Jews wear on their head and arms as a part of their prayer practice.) The man said, “Yes, I have tefillin.” The Chazon Ish says, “Sell your tefillin so you can pay the poll tax and vote.”
Later, another rabbi asks the Chazon Ish, “How could you tell him to sell such an important piece of Jewish property?” The Chazon Ish says, “Listen, putting on the tefillin is a mitzvah, a commandment, but so is voting. I am not worried about this man. He can borrow someone’s tefillin, but I am concerned if he does not vote.”
What I love about that story is that the Chazon Ish really understands voting is a religious obligation on par with our ritual obligations and that we should move mountains to vote. Thank God in America, we try to create an environment where people don’t have to move mountains to vote and eliminate the mountains that block other people from voting. For me, it is a profoundly religious obligation.
Riley: What from your faith tradition motivates you to participate in democracy, and, more specifically, to vote?
Rabbi Fixler: When I talk about voting as a Jewish value, it is because democracy may be a relatively new way to support the government and the civil society around us, but the idea that we have a stake in civil society is profoundly Jewish. There’s this phrase in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers); it’s a book from early in the Common Era… It says to pray for the government’s welfare because, without it, people would consume each other. There’s this real sense that part of the function of government is to maintain an order in society that keeps everyone, particularly Jews, safe. It’s a way to ensure a community that promotes the life and well-being of everyone in it.
Riley: What do you wish people understood about the connection between civic engagement and your religious tradition?
Rabbi Fixler: People in my community get anxious when we talk about religious values in the public square because they are often used [by others] to limit the voices of minorities. What I think is beautiful about civic engagement and democracy work is that it is an opportunity for us to say, “I am motivated to do this work because of my religious values.” To have that motivation be what shows up in the public square instead of how it sometimes shows up: ’I would like to impose my religious values on other people, and I’ll use the public square to do that.’
We do this work as a congregation because it is profoundly non-partisan and because it is a way in which everyone can participate and bring their thoughts and ideas about who to vote for and why they choose those candidates. We get to say this is the kind of way we would like religious values to show up–in ways that lift up the voices of the voiceless as opposed to imposing our ideals on other people.
Kyle Riley is Texas Impact’s Houston Civic Engagement and United Church of Christ Fellow. He is a Master of Divinity student at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.
Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes (HFV) campaign is bringing together mainstream Houston faith groups to build faith-based civic participation throughout our region. HFV mobilizes diverse faith communities across the Greater Houston area to engage their members and neighbors in elections in 2023 and 2024. This is a non-partisan effort, and any policy discussions will focus on voting rights and our current voting regulations and processes.
The HFV initiative provides resources that are developed by people of faith, for people of faith, with the support of more than two dozen partner institutions. These resources will help faith communities explore the faith-based call to civic engagement and provide tools for faith-based voter engagement activities that help faith communities scale their impact and get out the vote.
To learn more about our Houston Faith Votes campaign, visit our website, houstonfaithvotes.org.