Jewish Democrats Get Bad Advice in Michigan Senate Race From Attorney General Dana Nessel

If the invocation of the heroine of the Book of Esther by Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, was meant to reassure Jewish Democrats in the state that voting for the party’s senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, is the right choice, she gave bad advice and misread the bible. In her remarks at Birmingham, at the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus’ annual “Summer Simcha” gathering, where she was honored, Ms. Nessel reportedly encouraged Jewish voters to put aside concerns about Dr. El-Sayed’s hostility toward Israel “in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity.”Astoundingly, Ms. Nessel was quoted as saying, “We have a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival.”While she didn’t mention Dr. El-Sayed by name, it was clear that she was advising Jewish Democrats to not follow the example of some of their lot who, out of disgust with Dr. El-Sayid’s hostile attitude toward Israel, held a fundraiser in support of the Republican senate nominee, Representative Mike Rogers.Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on August 5, 2026, at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre. AP/Julia Demaree NikhinsonThe day before Ms. Nessel offered her opinion, the Democratic nominee apologized for his tone-deaf comment in March, after a Lebanese man rammed his pickup truck through the front doors of a suburban Detroit synagogue into an early childhood education part of the edifice.At the time, Dr. El-Sayed condemned the attack, but saw fit, the following day, to release a video in which he noted that the perpetrator had lost family members in an Israeli strike against terrorists in Lebanon. The candidate seemed to explain, if not justify, the terrorism as an example of how “hurt people hurt people.” He did not establish any connection between the IDF and the children in the synagogue program.“I made a mistake,” Dr. El-Sayed told a Jewish audience. “We condemned that terrorist attack,” he reminded his listeners, using, presumably, the royal “we,” but “what I was trying to do is offer context for why it happened.” He added: “it wasn’t the time for context.”He concluded that there will be “an opportunity for context later on,” implying that his apology was only for the timing, not the essence, of his “contextualization.”Ms. Nessel, in her speech at Birmingham, brought up the biblical heroine of the Jewish holiday of Purim, Queen Esther, contending that “it is perhaps up to us now to follow in her path,”Law enforcement officers respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue at West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on March 12, 2026. Corey Williams/APThat path, Ms. Nessel claimed, alluding to Dr. El-Sayed’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel, was to “sacrifice the comfort, safety and security, and even the very future of our own people in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity.”“What good,” she asked the audience, “is defending the historic homeland of our ancestors and demanding that candidates acknowledge its right to exist, if the planet upon which it rests is no longer inhabitable?”Whether the election of Mr. Rogers endangers the planet is something voters will have to carefully consider. But Queen Esther’s self-sacrifice had nothing to do with environmental concerns, and everything to do with protecting the Jewish people.And, it might be added, Esther set into motion the return of her people to their land, which, according to Jewish tradition, her son, King Darius II, effected, allowing the Jewish people to resume construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.“Come November,” she challenged, “what do your Jewish values tell you to do?”It is indeed a most important question. Yet one whose answer she got wrong.

Jewish Democrats Get Bad Advice in Michigan Senate Race From Attorney General Dana Nessel

Jewish Democrats Get Bad Advice in Michigan Senate Race From Attorney General Dana Nessel

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