Sam Hartstein

Sam Hartstein — known to nearly everyone in Albany as "Shmulie" — founded Kol Yisroel this past January, and in its first legislative session the organization did something few new advocacy groups manage in a decade: it got young people into the Capitol and got lawmakers to notice. Kol Yisroel organized eleven educational trips to Albany, brought several hundred students face-to-face with elected officials, and registered more than 250 new voters.

That grassroots energy translated directly into legislative movement. Kol Yisroel's advocacy helped drive the introduction of Assembly Bill A10548 and Senate Bill S10067, companion measures that would establish a buffer zone around houses of worship to protect congregants from intimidation and disruption. Sam and his student advocates met repeatedly with legislative offices this session, helping build bipartisan co-sponsorship in both chambers and pushing negotiators toward a larger protective zone than initially proposed.

Still building in year one, Sam and Kol Yisroel are already planning to double down next session — more schools, more students in Albany, more voters registered — on the theory that showing up is itself a civic education. As one colleague put it, "There is no one currently doing it like him."