Michigan rabbi whose synagogue was attacked slams leftist senate candidate’s response

Abdul El-Sayed’s statement that invoked war in Lebanon in connection with Temple Israel attack was ‘offensive’ and undermined his earlier condemnation, says Rabbi Jen Lader

JTA — A rabbi at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, has publicly chastised a candidate for US Senate in her state who grew up near the temple, for what she said was an “offensive” response to the March 12 terror attack on her synagogue.

Rabbi Jen Lader criticized Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former county health executive, for “suggesting that violence against a synagogue in suburban Detroit could be understood through the lens of Israeli actions.”

Lader’s op-ed, published Friday in The Free Press, marked an instance of a rabbi publicly opposing a specific political candidate — a once-rare occurrence that has become more normalized.

It came days after El-Sayed, who is taking the left flank in a close three-way primary for an open seat, held two rallies with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, whom some Jewish leaders have accused of antisemitism for comments on Jews as well as his views on Israel.

Lader’s commentary didn’t mention Piker or the recent rallies. Instead, the rabbi parsed two statements El-Sayed had made following the Temple Israel attack last month: an initial statement condemning antisemitism, which she commended, and lengthy follow-up remarks that also discussed Israel’s war in Lebanon, where relatives of the attacker, including at least one brother identified as a commander in Hezbollah, were killed.

(The FBI has has concluded that the Temple Israel attacker, who drove a car filled with fireworks into the building during a preschool session before shooting himself, was “Hezbollah-inspired.”)

El-Sayed’s second statement, the rabbi said, was “offensive” and undermined the first.

“Michigan’s Jews are not abstractions or stand-ins for a foreign government,” Lader wrote in a piece with the headline “The Two Faces of Abdul El-Sayed.”

“We are a local community of families who gather to pray, to learn, to celebrate, and to mourn together,” she added. “When we are violently attacked, it is not an understandable reaction to personal loss. It is antisemitic hatred directed at Jews wherever we are.”

A request for comment to El-Sayed’s campaign was not immediately returned. The candidate has repeatedly defended his decision to invoke the war in Lebanon in his statement on the attack, including when he spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency following his rallies this week.

“Many of my friends growing up worshipped at Temple Israel. Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,” El-Sayed told JTA on Tuesday. “I also think it’s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here.”

He continued, “I think some people tried to quote that out of context, and I understand that’s how politics works. I’m not here to defend myself, but I will tell you this: I will always stand up to defend my Jewish sisters and brothers who are fighting for an equal right to be who they are, to express their beautiful faith in the way that I choose to express mine.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.