Should her opponent, former county health official and staunch Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed, prevail instead, Tauber would take a step he\u2019s said he\u2019s never done before: leave the Senate ballot blank.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d sit it out,\u201d he said, of the general election. Of El-Sayed, he said, \u201cThere\u2019s no way that I could vote for him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., holds a town hall meeting with employees after touring the Webasto Plymouth Plant in Plymouth, Michigan, May 1, 2026 . (Sarah Rice\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Some Jewish Democratic leaders in the state are prepared to go even further. Several prominent Metro Detroit Jews who have traditionally fundraised for Democrats are also planning fundraisers for the presumptive GOP nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, as a \u201chedge.\u201d Others are planning to help him if El-Sayed wins the Democratic nomination, one Jew who is close to the Stevens campaign told JTA.<\/p>\n
Others affirmed the idea that the Jewish Democratic donor class, feeling abandoned by the party, would back Rogers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are leaders in our Jewish community who are longtime, lifelong Democrats and Democratic fundraisers, who are very concerned with where their party\u2019s going,\u201d said Dennis Bernard, national chair of government relations for the nonpartisan JFNA and a metro Detroit resident. \u201cAnd if this is the case, they\u2019ve made it clear, both financially and with their vote, that they would support Mike Rogers in the event El-Sayed wins the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detroit-area Jewish Democrats have asked Bernard, over golf outings, for introductions to Rogers, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reason: They see El-Sayed \u2014 who has questioned<\/a> whether Israel should be a Jewish state and suggested<\/a> that Democrats who support Israel only do so because of financial motives \u2014 as portending an existential threat to the national Jewish community. If he wins in a purple state, one in which pro-Israel Jews have for years butted heads with U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the pro-Palestinian Democrat, some fear more candidates with similar views will follow, and lead to an unsafe environment for Jews in Michigan and beyond. They worry that increasingly hostile discourse creates an environment in which antisemitic harassment becomes more acceptable and Jewish political activism is considered suspect.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a truly once-in-a-lifetime moment where you have to become a single-issue voter,\u201d Bernard said. \u201cAnd that issue is antisemitism, our Judaism and Israel. This is where you put party third: our people first, our country second.\u201d<\/p>\n Candidate Claire Valdez, candidate Brad Lander, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier raise their hands during a rally on June 18, 2026, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Left-wing congressional primary wins in New York, Colorado and other states have stoked anxiety over the Senate race here, as Michigan \u2014 also home to a large Arab\/Muslim population \u2014 is morphing into a litmus test for the relationship between pro-Israel Jews and the Democratic Party. For the majority of American Jews who back liberal policies, a decades-long bond is being tested like never before.<\/p>\n A similar dynamic played out on a smaller scale after Zohran Mamdani, a vocal anti-Zionist, secured the Democratic nomination in New York City\u2019s 2025 mayoral election. Then, several prominent Jewish donors backed a rival bid by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent while maintaining Democratic ties. Despite recent polling showing that<\/a> 44% of American Jews hold a favorable opinion of the mayor \u2014 a higher favorability score than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2014 pro-Israel voters still regard his pro-Palestinian rhetoric as disquieting<\/a>.<\/p>\n The backlash against Israel\u2019s handling of the war in Gaza and growing calls to shun the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC are further straining Jewish-Democratic bonds \u2014 and, for some of the most influential of Michigan\u2019s estimated 129,000 Jews, are on the verge of breaking them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another Jewish leader told JTA there was also an effort underway to convince pro-Israel Republicans to vote for Stevens in the state\u2019s open primary, even if they decide to later vote for Rogers in the general.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who cares about the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Democrat or Republican, needs to vote for Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary,\u201d they said, requesting anonymity because they did not want to be seen as speaking for the community. The Republican Party is currently engaged in its own tug-of-war<\/a> over Israel and antisemitism, with Vice President JD Vance recently criticizing Israel while entertaining conspiracy theories about its ties to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> on a popular podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n When contacted by JTA, Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (which is phone-banking for Stevens) and a native of East Lansing, Michigan, declined to comment directly on the possibility of the state\u2019s Jewish Democrats backing Rogers over El-Sayed.<\/p>\n \u201cOur focus is ensuring Haley Stevens wins the primary election,\u201d Soifer said in a statement, also saying that El-Sayed\u2019s \u201cviews are not aligned with the vast majority of Jewish Americans.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At Michigan\u2019s Democratic convention earlier this year in Detroit, Stevens was booed by the rank and file while state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who was then also running for the seat, alleged<\/a> that an attendee directed an antisemitic remark at her Jewish husband. At the same convention a lawyer for pro-Palestinian encampment participants, who himself had a history<\/a> of social media posts supporting Hezbollah and retweeting antisemitic conspiracy theories from far-right podcaster Candace Owens, ousted a pro-Israel Jewish incumbent<\/a> for the party\u2019s nomination for University of Michigan board of regents, a statewide elected position.\u00a0<\/p>\n The convention was an inflection point for many top Jewish Democratic supporters. Many of these Jewish leaders declined to comment to JTA. Others said much of the enthusiasm for the broader party goals among the staunchly pro-Israel Jews of the Detroit suburbs has been drained.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling kind of confused, and it must be how my Republican friends felt once the Tea Party took over,\u201d said Neil Gorosh, a retired commercial mortgage banker in West Bloomfield and past president of a local Jewish senior living community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gorosh ran for office once: a local parks-and-recreation position in 1988. A Democrat during the George H.W. Bush-led GOP wave, he lost. Since then, he said, he has always backed Democrats while developing an elections calculus: He leads with local issues on local races, but Israel on contests of national import.<\/p>\n Accusing the Democrats of \u201ccompletely rejecting Israel,\u201d he added, \u201cI\u2019m rudderless right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Former U.S. Rep. and current 2026 U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, Republican from Michigan, speaks to reporters in Howell, Michigan, Sept. 17, 2025. (Jeff Kowalsky \/ AFP)<\/p>\n \u201cIf it came down to Mike Rogers and El-Sayed, I will vote for Mike Rogers,\u201d Gorosh said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t write a check, but I would vote for him, and I would tell my like-minded friends to do the same, and the reasons why.\u201d<\/p>\n Michelle \u201cDecky\u201d Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, was one of a very few Jewish leaders who told JTA on the record she would back El-Sayed over Rogers. She insists that there are many others.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what I\u2019ve heard from Jews, even in Detroit: The Supreme Court is too critical to not support a Democrat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Alexander recently had an hours-long sitdown with El-Sayed, she said, and believes \u201che absolutely would be open to dialogue.\u201d In his rallies, the candidate has welcomed Jews and stated<\/a>, \u201cAIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, though, the focus is purely on Stevens, who is not herself Jewish but represents a large slab of Oakland County \u2014 affluent, heavily Jewish Detroit suburbs that have trended liberal over the last few election cycles after formerly electing Republicans. While the Stevens campaign has not responded to interview requests for JTA, she recently told The New York Times<\/a> that Israel is not a central issue for her and added, \u201cI am not a Netanyahu apologist.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel Tauber, longtime Jewish community leader from Michigan, speaks at the University of Michigan\u2019s Tauber Institute for Global Operations, which he endowed, Jan. 7, 2022. (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n The congresswoman\u2019s Jewish backers are hoping to drive a strong enough voter turnout to neuter both El-Sayed and the national progressive insurgent movement he represents. (The Democratic Socialists of America are behind many of the emerging candidates, though El-Sayed himself is not a member of the group and has distanced himself<\/a> from the socialist label.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Stevens\u2019 supporters point to a growing number of encouraging signs, including endorsements from party leaders such as retiring Sen. Gary Peters, whose seat she hopes to fill. Chuck Schumer, the Jewish Senate majority leader, has also endorsed her. A recent poll<\/a> commissioned by the Detroit News shows her ahead by seven points, though social media in recent days has been flooded with so many unflattering memes of Stevens on the campaign trail that El-Sayed himself denounced<\/a> his supporters\u2019 behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another<\/a> Detroit News poll this week shows that most likely Democratic voters have a negative view of AIPAC, which according to an AdImpact analysis<\/a> of the most recent filings has spent more than $28 million for Stevens to date. AIPAC\u2019s support of Stevens is one of El-Sayed\u2019s biggest attack lines. The candidate recently claimed that the group has spent more than $50 million against him, though a campaign representative told JTA that figure includes $20 million from new super PACs that have not disclosed their funding sources and have no immediately apparent links to AIPAC.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Jewish Stevens supporters who spoke to JTA, some of whom are or have been AIPAC supporters themselves, argue that AIPAC has been unfairly demonized compared to other lobbying groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens spar during a televised debate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 7, 2026. (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n They also shrug off Stevens\u2019 recent critiques of Netanyahu<\/a> during a debate, at which she said the Israeli prime minister \u201cis a danger to Jews in America and around the world.\u201d Many of her backers chalked up the language to a new political reality for Democrats that rewards criticism of Israel, rather than a shift in her own thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the needle Democrats have to thread to have any credibility path at all,\u201d Gorosh said. Referring to Israel\u2019s own upcoming elections, he added, \u201cI think he\u2019ll [Netanyahu] be gone after October, but he\u2019ll be gone eventually. Then what do you criticize?\u201d<\/p>\n El-Sayed also has Jewish supporters, most notably former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, a progressive member of a powerful Michigan political family who lost his House seat to Stevens after AIPAC spent heavily for her in 2022. There is also a Jews For Abdul affinity group. <\/p>\n Speaking to JTA, Levin dismissed concerns about Jewish Democrats rejecting El-Sayed in the general. He said the conversation was being dominated by hardline pro-Israel donors in the community who have pushed similar red lines for decades, rather than being a new shift from the Jewish mainstream.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not take a backseat to any of these so-called \u2018lifelong Democrats\u2019 about self-determination for the Jewish people in the holy land, about fighting antisemitism at home and abroad,\u201d he said. \u201cI just have a different view of how we accomplish these things, and they do not have a monopoly in the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n Levin also defended El-Sayed\u2019s record on Jewish issues, saying, \u201cHe is a strong advocate for Jewish safety here, in our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For Jews who have long seen themselves as committed Democrats, the prospect of leaving the party is a tough sit. Tauber, for his part, says he still can\u2019t bring himself to vote for any Republican \u201cwho is so controlled by Trump, who\u2019s a man of immorality, no values.\u201d (Rogers\u2019 campaign touts his Trump endorsement, and the candidate has also backed<\/a> Trump\u2019s unfounded claims about election fraud in the state as well as supported<\/a> the president\u2019s holding up of an international bridge in Michigan. The candidate has also acknowledged<\/a> antisemitism on the right.)<\/p>\n The Rogers campaign did not respond to a JTA request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The nationwide importance of this race and the Jewish vote was evident when New York state Republicans recently made an explicit appeal<\/a> for Jewish Democrats, stating in a digital ad campaign that Jews were leaving the party \u201cin droves\u201d \u201cfrom Maine to Michigan.\u201d Before he dropped out last week as the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine over sexual assault allegations he has denied, Graham Platner put anti-Israel criticism near the center of his platform.<\/p>\n Some Jews who spoke to JTA comfort themselves by insisting that the House, at least, seems likely to flip, providing a check on Trump even if the Senate remains led by Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shimon Levy, an Israeli-American entrepreneur who has lived in the Detroit area since 2014, said he was unconcerned about the prospect of Republicans keeping the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cF\u2014 that,\u201d Levy told JTA. Levy has drifted between the parties over the years, he said, but \u201cI stand and I lead with my Jewish identity. Safety and security of the Jewish community is my first and foremost goal.\u201d<\/p>\n That wouldn\u2019t be possible with El-Sayed on the ticket, he insisted: \u201cEl-Sayed has done nothing but put Jews at risk and in danger, and through his words has been so poisonous and has ostracized and villainized, single-handedly, the Jews of Southeast Michigan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIf today, as a Jew, you\u2019re still like, \u2018Democratic all the way, Democratic down the ticket,\u2019 you need to rethink your survivalist instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently Levy, who describes himself as a reluctant political activist, hosted a candidate meet-and-greet fundraiser that brought in more than $70,000 for Stevens. Attendees were not just Jewish, and not just Democrats. Republicans, too, showed up: \u201cPeople who are concerned about common-sense politics, who would vote for Haley in a heartbeat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The question of how Jewish safety is linked to Israel discourse isn\u2019t abstract in Michigan. West Bloomfield\u2019s Temple Israel was the site of an attack this spring by a Michigan resident whose family members were killed when Israel targeted a Hezbollah outpost in Lebanon. The incident became a factor in the Senate campaign after El-Sayed said of the attacker, \u201cHurt people hurt people,\u201d which critics felt minimized the crime and equated the attacker with his intended victims.<\/p>\n In late June, the temple itself \u2014 the largest Reform congregation in the country \u2014 sent an email to congregants stating, \u201cThis year, antisemitism is on the ballot.\u201d Without naming candidates, the unsigned message concluded, \u201cThe Talmud reminds us that our leaders are chosen by us \u2014 silence is not a choice we can make right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mailers<\/a> funded by AIPAC\u2019s United Democracy Project and sent to some voters in Michigan, and circulated online, attacked El-Sayed for his friendship<\/a> with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker and for his statement after the Temple Israel attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mailers accused El-Sayed of having \u201crationalized a terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue filled with Jewish children.\u201d (The synagogue preschool was open at the time of the attack.) El-Sayed had condemned the attack, but the mailers accused him of equivocating.<\/p>\n This was not a total break with all Democrats, many emphasized. Jewish pro-Israel state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is running for Stevens\u2019 congressional seat, and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, along with others, continue to receive high marks from the Jewish donor class.\u00a0<\/p>\n Temple Israel Rabbi Paul Yedwab discusses the political situation for Jews during Michigan\u2019s primary election in a Shabbat sermon in West Bloomfield, Michigan, April 25, 2026. (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n Across Michigan, particularly in the Detroit area, there are (literal) signs of strain. Last month the Oakland County roads commission ordered<\/a> the removal of Adopt-a-Road signs, located a few miles from Temple Israel, that had been sponsored by a group called \u201cVoices for Palestinians\u201d after temple members voiced objections. A Fourth of July parade in Huntington Woods, another heavily Jewish suburb in the county, was briefly disrupted<\/a> by a protest after parade organizers had put in place rules<\/a> forbidding pro-Palestinian signs from being displayed.<\/p>\n In early July the state Anti-Defamation League chapter, together with Temple Israel, hosted a bipartisan delegation of Michigan lawmakers on the site of the attack, and advocated for increased synagogue security funding. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Jewish Democrat, as well as Rep. Shri Thanedar, a Democrat who has tacked from the left to the center on Israel since his election and is now facing a primary challenger endorsed by El-Sayed, were among those in attendance.<\/p>\n Rabbis at the temple gave voice to the uneasiness of the political moment for Jewish liberals.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Mamdani](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MamdaniEffect.jpg\")
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