DAMOJO Spotlight: Ronnie Tawil, Sephardic Community Federation (SCF)

I'm privileged today to be sitting with Mr. Ronnie Towel, the co-founder and co-chairman of the Sepharda Community Federation, better known as the SCF. We are now a couple of months away from a very pivotal mayoral election. Um, [music] a lot of groups are coming together now trying to stress the urgency to go and [music] vote to register to vote. I'd like you really to tell the community right now why it's important for everybody, anybody 18 and up, whether you were born here or not born here or whether you voted or you never voted before, everybody must not just for themselves register to vote, register your family, your entire household, please give us the critical importance why it is crucial and urgent that everybody in our community [music] today goes out to register to vote and obviously ultimately votes. But let's focus on the voter registration. The key message is having done [music] this for 20 years or more. We're we're at an existential situation right now that we [music] face. We've had situations, elections are important. Even presidential elections have a key key element to our our life and our community, our survival in this area. But the mayor election is really city elections are quality of life. And we are we have a particular situation that is an anathema. people that are running for this [music] and supporters are running for the current mayor election are not on our page at all. In fact, maybe [music] they're against our page and now's the time for us to step up and make sure that we're counted. I work with a lot of elected officials and very often they say, you know, we trust you. We like the way you [music] work. You also help us with our campaigns, but you don't vote. You don't vote. The truth is we don't vote [music] and probably don't register to vote. You can't vote if you're not registered. People are hesitant. They have all these myths that if you are registered to vote, you'll get jury duty. Not true. If you have a driver's [music] license, you're going to get called for jury duty. That's part of our civic duty. That's responsibility. We have to vote. We have to make our voice heard. [music] You see how many areas around even Brooklyn, we have probably one of the lowest voter turnout of all the different areas in Brooklyn. It shouldn't be that way. So, we got to go out and vote. You can make a [music] difference. Don't think it's just one vote. A number of votes make a difference. We got to make it happen. It's our responsibility. If we don't, we will bear the consequences. Very often when my kids were young, I [music] took them with me to go vote. Let them see. Let your children, let your grandchildren know. And before [music] election day, I make sure to circulate the family chat. You got to go out and vote. It makes a difference. It's not just you. [music] It's your spouse. It's your family. Make it happen. Get your friends. Make it the thing to [music] do because it is the thing to do. So please, we're asking everybody on behalf of the Sepharta Community Federation, on behalf of pretty much every lobbyist group, [music] everybody's asking the Jewish community, but particularly our Safarta community, please click the link below. It really takes 2, three minutes. Go out and register to vote right now. And not [music] just yourself, but share it with everybody in your family, anybody in your household, 18 and up, your neighbors. [music] The more you can bring to register, the better off our community will be. Thank you very much.