Over 200 rabbis urge Senate hopeful El-Sayed to promote Jewish inclusion in Democratic party
More than 220 rabbis from 34 states and Washington, D.C., urged Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, to promote the inclusion of Jews, including Zionist Jews, in the Democratic Party, as former President Barack Obama did.
The rabbis issued their open letter Friday, a day before Obama joined El-Sayed at a get-out-the-vote rally in Detroit. It was Obama’s first public campaign event with the nominee.
The letter asked El-Sayed to affirm five commitments aloud and in his own words while on stage with Obama, and then to prove through his actions that he meant them.
Shared by the advocacy group Nonnegotiable Michigan, the signers said 230 rabbis had joined.
Because El-Sayed has cast his campaign as a continuation of Obama’s work, the rabbis asked him to follow the former president’s lead in keeping Jewish Americans safe and welcome in the party. They cited the federal hate crimes law Obama signed and the security aid agreement his administration reached with Israel.
They also called on Obama to use the Detroit event to tell the coalition he built that Jews, including those with deep ties to Israel, have a full and secure place in it.
At the rally, Obama praised El-Sayed, compared their political paths and called for a Democratic win to check President Donald Trump’s administration. He did not mention the disputes over Jewish inclusion or foreign policy, The Jerusalem Post reports.
The five commitments come from Nonnegotiable Michigan, a campaign started in September by Jewish clergy and lay leaders whose congregations serve about 40,000 Jews in the state.
The commitments state that only Jews decide who is Jewish, that Zionist Jews take a full part in the party and that Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is not open to debate. They also hold that Jewish safety is nonnegotiable and that Palestinian safety, dignity and freedom should be pursued together with Israel’s.
On Wednesday, the campaign said El-Sayed had gone six weeks without answering its requests for talks. It also said elected officials, party leaders and college students had joined its effort.
The rabbis said El-Sayed responds to questions about Jewish safety with kind words about Judaism, then shifts to Israel and overseas conflicts. They objected to his calling Israelis “bloodthirsty,” his remark that U.S. support for Israel amounts to “legalized bribery” and “purchased loyalty,” and his view that a Jewish state is "inherently illiberal."
They added that he recently told a national audience that Israel uses American funds to drag the U.S. into wars.
This week, El-Sayed sent Jewish voters a mailer, paid for by the Michigan Democratic Party, promising to fight antisemitism and protect Michigan Jews, according to Jewish Insider. In it, he wrote that he knew what it was to face discrimination for his beliefs and that everyone should be free to pray as they wish.
Some prominent Jewish leaders plan to vote for Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers or to skip the race.
Noah Arbit, a Democratic state lawmaker who opposes El-Sayed, told Jewish Insider that the nominee treats antisemitism as purely religious prejudice. Arbit said the gunman who attacked Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, in March did so “because we are a proudly Zionist congregation.”
El-Sayed received criticism for responding to the Hezbollah-inspired attack by saying "hurt people hurt people." He later apologized, but the comment remains on his campaign website.
Joan Lowenstein, a Nonnegotiable Michigan leader who heads the Ann Arbor Jewish Federation, called the mailer "more lip service," telling Jewish Insider that El-Sayed’s claim that Israel pulled America into the war with Iran feeds antisemitic tropes.
El-Sayed said last week that Israel is neither a friend nor an ally of the U.S.
Speaking for himself, Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, a Nonnegotiable Michigan leader, said Jewish groups nationwide spend $1 billion a year on security. He accused El-Sayed of equating Israel with Iran.
Daniel Biss, an Illinois Democrat running for the House, met with Jewish voters in Michigan this week at the invitation of Michigan Jews for Democracy, which supports El-Sayed but has no formal ties to his campaign.
Biss wrote on X that El-Sayed has shown real commitment to Jewish safety.
El-Sayed beat Rep. Haley Stevens in the August Democratic primary. Stevens and groups backing her outspent him about 9-to-1 on ads, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact found at the time. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib backed El-Sayed in the primary.
