Thinking about El-Sayed vs. Rogers Senate race

By Clare Kinberg

On August 4, when Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for retiring Senator Gary Peters’ seat, Jews in Michigan were presented with unfamiliar and possibly momentous choices.

In November, El-Sayed will face off against Republican Mike Rogers, who himself was narrowly defeated by U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin in 2024. All signs are that this will be a close race. Neither El-Sayed nor Rogers are as moderate as past Michigan Senate candidates. El-Sayed is endorsed by the Democratic Pary’s left wing; and Rogers, who was formerly a Trump critic, has shifted toward “skepticism” on the 2020 election and is now endorsed by Trump.

El-Sayed’s victory in the primary was propelled, according to Bridge Michigan, by “big showings in liberal strongholds and college towns. El-Sayed fared particularly well in Kent and Washtenaw counties, each of which he won with more than 60% of the vote.”

There has been no poll of specifically Jewish voters in Washtenaw County. But as Rabbi Alana Alpert of Congregation T’chiya in suburban Detroit wrote the next day in the Forward (forward.com, August 5), “Michigan Jews are feeling the ground shifting beneath us.”

Rabbi Alana’s observation was the opening to an opinion piece in which she strongly urges Jewish voters to support El-Sayed. She wrote, “In this election, we have an unusually clear lens for understanding a candidate’s values: immigration enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE — is where our society’s authoritarian drift is most visible and most violent.” Alpert believes El-Sayed shares her Jewish values: “… What I hope you’ll hear is that Abdul is someone with whom we share core values — that he is someone the Jewish community can work with.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a venerable leader in the Modern Orthodox movement and longtime advocate for intra-Jewish tolerance, has put out a piece, “Defend America — Save the Democratic Party, Defeat Abdul el Sayed” (Jewishjournal.org, August 11), in which he argues for Michigan Jews to vote for Mike Rogers. Greenberg wrote in part, “Abdul El-Sayed is not just a candidate with different policy priorities whom one accepts after the fact. He could have presented as a critic of Israel. That is legitimate even when it is wrong. He made clear that he denies Israel’s right to exist. He does not recognize Israel’s legitimacy as a state because it is a Jewish state. … El-Sayed also hates America …”

The president of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, also weighed in after the primary with an essay (jstreetdotorg.substack.com/, August 9) supporting El-Sayed and at the same time emphasizing the bridges that need to be built. “A candidate seeking to represent all Michiganders has to take the concerns of Jewish constituents seriously. Dr. El-Sayed would be well served to spend serious time listening to Jewish communities and hearing directly about their feelings of vulnerability. … He will need to make clear in words and in actions that there is no place for antisemitism in his campaign — and that there is a place for Jews who care about Israel in his coalition.”

The Washtenaw Jewish News sent the Greenberg, Alpert, and Ben-Ami pieces in full to over 50 Washtenaw Jews for reaction and comment and received over a dozen thoughtful responses.

Two leaders of the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County, Rabbi Asher Lopatin of the Jewish Community Relations Council, and Joan Lowenstein, Federation president, agreed wholeheartedly with Greenberg’s assessment. Lowenstein wrote, “As Yitz Greenberg points out, in one of his first interviews after the election, El-Sayed called Israel ‘bloodthirsty’ and a ‘genocidal apartheid state.’ As with Zohran Mamdani, Israel is not just a side issue for El-Sayed and his like-minded candidates. It is their core issue, one that has replaced climate change and a host of other real problems facing Americans.”

Lopatin wrote, “My views are closest to Rav Greenberg who points out that El-Sayed continues — post primary — to call the Jewish State — not just a particular government — ‘bloodthirsty,’ a vicious term used over the centuries against the Jewish people.”

Sharon Gourdji, an environmental engineer with deep roots in Ann Arbor (though she recently moved to Detroit), who has heard El-Sayed speak in person many times, thinks this characterization of El-Sayed is unfair. In response to Greenberg, Gourdji wrote, “I feel like the Yitz Greenberg opinion piece is guilty of exaggeration and putting the worst possible spin on some of Abdul’s words or associations. He [El-Sayed] didn’t refer to Israel as a bloodthirsty state in that interview on Morning Joe last week. He said something like ‘I understand that Netanyahu is a big part of the reason why Israel has gone so right-wing and frankly bloodthirsty in the last few years.’”

A full-throated endorsement for El-Sayed came from attorney Don Greenspon, a member of “Jews for Abdul” who wrote that Greenberg’s characterization of El-Sayed as anti-American is “simply nonsense.” Greenspon continued, “Dr. El-Sayed has credibly and repeatedly stated that he loves this country, which provided him with the opportunity to become an esteemed doctor and public health professional. Dr. El-Sayed wants the opportunities he has been granted to be extended to all Americans, especially to those in the poor and working classes. That is why he is a strong advocate for Medicare for All, and for many other social programs.”

Joy Wolfe Ensor, co-editor and author of The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust, wrote, “I align with El-Sayed in important areas, including getting special interest money out of politics, improving access to healthcare, and upholding international law and human rights at home and abroad. I appreciate a lot of what he has said about supporting peace, dignity and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike (he’s even familiar with the “A Land for All” movement). I believe him when he says that he reveres Judaism (as a religion) and that he has been truly enriched by growing up among Jews. I vehemently disagree with a cousin of mine who says about him, ‘He wants you dead — it’s that simple.’ But I am a liberal Zionist, and I am triggered by some of his rhetoric and by some of the company he keeps. I don’t think that El-Sayed can truly revere Judaism without understanding how Jews’ history and identity as a people are deeply connected to our strivings for a secure nation-state in our ancestral homeland. I am with Jeremy Ben-Ami in urging El-Sayed to listen with sincerity to the concerns of the Jewish community.”

Harvey Somers, a retired foreign service officer, concurred, “Dr. El-Sayed’s primary election victory has devastated many Michiganders. But the best response for the Jewish community going forward should be persistent and calm engagement with him. We need to do our best to ensure Dr. El-Sayed understands the views of all members of our community. So let us all support Dr. El-Sayed at the same time we ‘lobby’ him as we should be engaging with all candidates and incumbents in this election cycle.”

Other issues, besides Israel, are most important to Ruth Kraut, a Washtenaw County Public Health administrator, who wrote, “Questions about Israel are not first, second, or third on my list of concerns for this election. I worry about the Supreme Court and other judicial nominations, climate change, access to health care, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive health care. I worry about the long-term damage that the Trump presidency has done to our federal government employees. I worry about our bridges, roads, and the increasing threat of invasive species and wildfires. I worry about regulating data centers. I worry about my immigrant neighbors and the tremendous damage ICE and related agencies have been doing. My focus will be on getting Abdul El-Sayed to focus on domestic concerns first. Meanwhile, I worry about Israel’s own anti-democratic tendencies, but Israelis will have their own election this fall.”

The Democrats winning is at the top of historian Deborah Dash Moore’s thoughts: “… [I]f people of good faith, carrying very different histories and very different pain, can find a way to build trust without demanding ideological uniformity, they can assemble the coalition needed to win. If we build this bridge, Democrats won’t just win a Senate seat. We’ll demonstrate that Americans who disagree deeply about Israel and Palestine can still work together on everything else that matters to us.”

Sam Bagenstos, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, quoting from David Remnick’s NY Times interview with El-Sayed, wrote that the candidate believes “in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination, for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike,” and in “whatever the outcome is that a free Palestinian people and a free Jewish Israeli people decide is the right outcome.” Bagenstos goes on to say, “This is not the view held by most Jews. But it is a view held by many Jews — including a large number of Jews in my children’s generation, who believe it follows naturally from what we taught them were the basic Jewish values of universal freedom and human rights.”

Many Jewish Democratic Party activists were shocked and alienated by events at the Michigan Democratic Party Nominating Convention where Jewish supporters of Haley Stevens were shouted down and harassed, and were convinced that El-Sayed’s unwillingness or inability to keep discipline in his supporters was an expression of antisemitism. Denise Thal, retired VP of Business Operations at Planned Parenthood of Michigan, was at the convention and wrote, “I was truly disappointed at the Democratic State Nominating Convention when El-Sayed supporters tried to drown her [Haley Stevens] out, call her names, etc., and he never stepped up to tone them down. That being said, winning a Democratic Senate majority is far more important than the foreign policy views of a first-term senator from Michigan. I, therefore, intend to vote for him and encourage others to do so as well.”

In his opinion piece, Rabbi Greenberg wrote, “To rephrase his [El-Sayed’s] views, only the Jews are not entitled to have a state where they are the majority, exercising sovereignty. This denial unmasks him as an out and out antisemite.” This view is also held by Rabbi Lopatin who wrote, “I was most disappointed by Jeremy Ben-Ami’s piece because he completely ignores Abdul El-Sayed’s publicly flaunting his friendship with antisemite and anti-American influencer Hasan Piker. By continuing to feature Piker in his close circle, El Sayed is normalizing Jew and Israel hatred and demonstrating disdain for the fears and concerns of the Jewish community.”

Sarai Brachman Shoup, a foundation executive, wrote, “I duly explored Abdul El-Sayed’s stances across the board, emerging convinced that his votes as a U.S. Senator would likely closely represent my own values. Were there traces of antisemitism in his campaign and possible dog whistles in his references to AIPAC? Yes. As the campaign continued though, calling out AIPAC for its $30 million spend against him was unavoidable and not antisemitic.”

The NY Times reported on August 5 that AIPAC will continue to spend in Michigan, “In a statement, AIPAC suggested its supporters would be involved in the general election without laying out specific plans. ‘Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,’ said Deryn Sousa, a spokeswoman for AIPAC.”

Regarding the AIPAC/UDP spending, affordable housing advocate Michael Appel wrote, “I am disturbed by those who use this moment to drive a wedge in the coalition that currently makes up the Democratic Party. That has been AIPAC’s strategy — using funds provided by Republican donors to create chaos in Democratic primaries. I reject language and politics that use fighting antisemitism as a cover for pulling apart a coalition that promotes civil and human rights and is willing to hold Israel accountable to those same standards.”

Concern about antisemitism is also on the mind of retired Washtenaw planner Janis Bobrin, “The rise of antisemitism is shocking and personally deeply troubling. But I see it both on the far right, where it is a long-standing, almost cultural feature, and on the far left where it was grown in large part as a result of Israel’s treatment of Gaza, the West Bank, Palestinian refugees in general. History tells us that Jews do not fare well under authoritarian regimes; voting for Mike Rogers would help ensure that the United States continues in this frightening direction.”

Ruth Kraut, considering how antisemitism is affecting the Senate race, does not believe El-Sayed or Rogers are antisemites: “I think antisemitism is real and exists on both the right and the left. I’m not at all convinced that either one of these candidates is antisemitic. Mike Rogers has aligned himself with Trump, who I believe has done more damage to the U.S. than any of the last several presidents and who has been completely anti-democratic in his approach to governance.”

Donna Rich Kaplowitz, Senior Director for Campus Dialogue Education at the University of Michigan, is considering how both antisemitism and Islamophobia are concerning. “I have dear family members in Israel. I also worry deeply about rising antisemitism in this country and how it may affect my grandchildren. But I am equally concerned about other forms of hatred, including the Islamophobia that Mike Rogers has already displayed.

“Jeremy Ben-Ami is right that we must build bridges and find ways to work across differences. This is not the moment to inflame fear or abandon our deepest values by allowing one foreign-policy issue to determine our votes. That is why I disagree with Rabbi Irving Greenberg’s call to make support for Israel the overriding political priority.”

The last response received by the WJN was from former Michigan State Senator and Chair U.S. Section International Joint Commission, Lana Pollack, who wrote, “Ben Ami points out that the Republican National Senatorial Committee and El Sayed’s opponent are already leaning into Islamophobic rhetoric, and that the Jewish community must stand up against such blatant bigotry. Rabbi Alpert writes that the cost of unconditional support for Israel could mean stripping away environmental protections and abortion rights, gutting health care and undermining the basic machinery of democracy in America. I find compelling truths in each of these Jewish thinkers. I find Rabbi Greenberg’s arguments inconsistent with reality and the fundamental Jewish values I learned as a child.

“In ‘Defend America,’ Rabbi Greenberg claims ours is the world’s greatest democracy, even as Trump and his Republican sycophants are in full out attack on Due Process and virtually every other element of our Constitutional Democracy.

“As a lifelong Zionist I expect to continue to disagree with El Sayed on some matters, but I am satisfied that he will make contributions to a more just America, and ultimately to policy adjustments that are essential to a safer, more peaceful Middle East for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”