Avigdor “Avi” Schnall is a Democratic Party politician who has represented the 30th legislative district in the New Jersey General Assembly since taking office on January 9, 2024. A Brooklyn native, Schnall first moved to Lakewood Township to study at Beth Medrash Govoha.
In addition to his legislative work, Avi is employed by Agudas Yisrael. In that capacity, he lobbied Congress for the creation of a tax-credit scholarship program that will pay for private school tuition. Individuals can knock $1,700 off their tax bill if they donate that amount of money to an organization that awards scholarships to children who attend private schools. The inclusion of that program in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a huge win for the frum community, which has long championed an idea like this.
I met Avi in Ami’s Lakewood office, which was in fact once the office of Lakewood’s branch of Agudas Yisrael, where Avi Schnall worked as its regional director for New Jersey.
I understand that you are still very much involved in Agudas Yisrael.
Yes. That’s my other job. That’s how I got involved in this whole scholarship thing that just passed in Congress and was signed into law by Trump.
So you’re not strictly working for the New Jersey legislature.
While in New York it’s a full-time job, being an assemblyman is a part-time job in New Jersey. Almost every member of the legislature has a job in addition to being an assemblyman.
The mayor of Lakewood also told me that he has another job, which I found fascinating. You would think that being mayor of a township like Lakewood is enough of a job for one person.
Yes, but that’s how it works, and the New Jersey legislative calendar reflects the fact that everyone has other jobs. In New York, the legislature is in Albany, so you can’t have another job if you live in Brooklyn and have to go back and forth. It’s a five-hour schlep, whereas Trenton is only 40 minutes away. And they only schedule committee meetings two or three times a month.
How often do you guys vote?
Voting sessions are held once or twice a month. It takes longer for things to happen because we have fewer sessions and committee meetings.
You’re probably unique in the legislature because you’re a shtadlan in both positions, so they overlap.
That’s correct.
And what you’re trying to do in Trenton is what you’re trying to do for Agudas Yisrael as well.
It’s different. My work for Agudas Yisrael now focuses on federal issues in Washington, while Trenton focuses on the state.
Agudah does shtadlanus on the state level as well.
Yes. We have 12 state offices, including in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and Florida. But I work on the federal level. There’s a New Jersey director who takes care of New Jersey issues.
Who oversees all this?
Rabbi A.D. Motzen is the yoshev rosh, so to speak. He works in Washington, but he also oversees the state offices, and he’s also involved in states that don’t have dedicated offices. For example, he has been very focused on Texas, where they were very influential on school choice issues. They’re also involved in Iowa and Indiana and other states. Not every community can afford to have a full Agudah office.
We always think of Agudah in terms of the annual convention.
I know. It’s very sad. We have to try to fix that. We’ve done tremendous things over the years in New Jersey, including getting busing legislation passed—which got us the whole LSTA—filing a lawsuit in Jackson Township over issues related to non-public funds and other things. We also started an organization called Yahalom and another one called Zahav.
I’m assuming that the federal issues are more connected to klal Yisrael than the things you work on in New Jersey, which are probably more local.
Correct. Meaning that what I do in New Jersey can only affect New Jersey, and even that is very district focused. If a Jewish person in Passaic has a problem, he isn’t going to come to me; he’s going to approach his legislator, who also happens to be frum. If someone in Cherry Hill has a problem, he can call my office and I’ll be happy to help him, but it’s really more relevant to his local legislator.
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