More than a dozen Michigan rabbis said they have a list of “non-negotiables” when it comes to potentially backing Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in an upcoming Senate election, as they try to push the political novice with a history of incendiary rhetoric about Israel toward a more thoughtful stance.
“American Jews now feel forced to fight for the party they long claimed as their political home, asking its leaders to treat explosive bigotry and violence against our community as the national emergency it is not with platitudes, but with urgency and moral clarity,” 15 Michigan Jewish leaders wrote in a petition introducing the Nonnegotiables Michigan initiative.
The group calls on El-Sayed to “affirm five baseline commitments to Jewish safety, identity, political participation and self-determination,” including that the safety of all Jews, including Zionists, is non-negotiable, nor is Jewish sovereignty in Israel or the full participation of all Jews, including Zionists, in American political life.
The initiative is billed not as an ultimatum but an invitation for further dialogue.
El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in a campaign in which a collection of notable Jewish voters, including Democrats, have been openly campaigning for the latter.
“Extremist politicians and extremist podcasters and extremists of all types have the microphone right now, on the left and the right. What needs to happen is that the majority of this country, including the majority of the American Jewish community, needs to take the microphone back and proclaim that we are all committed to honoring human dignity of every person,” Rabbi Aaron Starr, Michigan Board of Rabbis president and a leader of the new initiative, told JNS.
“We are all in need of safety, and just as much as the American Jewish community wants to partner for the safety, the well-being and the progress of every single American, we are asking every single American to return that same respect to us,” Starr said.
‘Waiting and watching’
El-Sayed has described Israel as “bloodthirsty” and “evil,” accused it of buying American Jewish support, said that any form of a Jewish state is inherently illiberal and appeared to justify a terror attack on a Michigan synagogue.
He has campaigned with antisemitic podcaster Hasan Piker, but when reporters asked about it, he tried to downplay cooperation between the two. El-Sayed also clarified his comments about the synagogue attack, which some critics said was a non-apology.
“His actions always have to match words, so we’re going to be waiting and watching,” Starr told JNS, of El-Sayed.
Starr and colleagues are trying to educate elected officials and candidates that it’s good to say that they value Jewish safety, but when they denounce Israel and Zionists “far above and beyond any other criticism of any other place or country,” that “comes back to create violence,” he told JNS.
“When certain politicians accuse Israeli leaders of being bloodthirsty, that causes violence,” he said. “When they speak in language of genocide and apartheid, that sort of hateful rhetoric, those false truths, part of those falsities create the potential for people to wreak violence upon the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Josh Winston, rabbi at Temple Beth Emeth, a Reform synagogue in Ann Arbor, told press and attendees at a Nonnegotiables Michigan Zoom event on Tuesday that “Jews have voted for the Democratic ticket upwards of 70% for decades, and now they’re asking themselves, ‘What’s going on? Do I belong here? Is this for me still?’ And what a shame for the Democratic Party that that’s happening.”
He decried El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director, for his stated willingness to strip Israel of the ability to purchase defense weapons from the United States.
“How does a medical doctor not support the right of people to defend themselves from rockets, missiles raining down on their country?” Winston said. “I’m not talking about aid. I’m talking about the ability for Israel to continue to buy Iron Dome missiles to make sure that they continue to keep their citizens safe.”
Starr told JNS that he had not heard from El-Sayed or anyone in his orbit in the hours following the introduction of Nonnegotiables Michigan.
But he said he thinks the message is still reaching the party, including the state branch, “and hopefully to all of our political candidates and elected officials, that we have non-negotiables” that need to be met in order for Jews to feel safe and part of the democratic process.
“We want to be safe. We want to work for a better America, and to be partners in all of that,” Starr said.
He said he plans to speak about the initiative next Sunday on the evening of Yom Kippur as part of an effort to sustain the campaign.
“While we’re all very aware of this coming November election, our eyes are also looking to 2028,” Starr told JNS. “We’re asking our political candidates, and we’re asking our elected officials to change the rhetoric, to turn down the temperature, to speak to Americans with a desire to build and to love and to grow, rather than just a desire to tear down.”
