Epistle From MI Rabbis: Jewish Safety & Israel

Just weeks after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel skipped the Michigan Democrats’ nominating convention due to fears of antisemitic harassment and violence from within the Democrats, an attacker came after Dr. Amy Acton on the campaign trail in her run for governor of Michigan’s oft-times rival and one of several neighbors on Michigan’s southern border, Ohio.

Now Michigan Rabbis have again spoken in a letter open letter backed by Zioness after their concerns were ignored last month, naming Israel and safety for all Jews as not up for negotiation in the wake of US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed driving Jewish Democrats to support Republican candidate Mike Rogers not just in protest but out of legitimate fears for personal and communal safety.

El-Sayed’s frequent associate Hasan Piker has claimed Jews should expect violence for supporting the Jewish homeland, which increasingly feels more like a threat than simply being incitement. El-Sayed may distance himself from Piker’s threats, yet he has not repudiated the underlying hatred of his friend’s rhetoric.

What the rabbis ask of the Democrats is reasonable and affirms the American values that made this country the place Emma Lazarus so passionately called home, the same values that led almost every American Jew to support the Democrats.

Every Jewish person supporting the Democrats is put in an untenable position as the Democrats increasingly avoid supporting peace in favor of Israel’s abandonment and seemingly drop the pretense of considering Jewish safety in favor of electoral expediency. And Michigan Jews are left to question if voting a split ticket to avoid supporting El-Sayed is pragmatic or instead an endorsement of our own further marginalization leading to us being targeted further just as antisemites increasingly-openly threat without any rebuke from their allies.