“If Jews—including the highest-ranking Jewish state official in Michigan—are intimidated into staying away from your convention, it will not stop there.”
Two hundred Jewish leaders, rabbis, academics and community activists are demanding that the Michigan Democratic Party protect Jewish delegates at its upcoming convention after Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel said she does not feel safe attending and accused her own party of failing to adequately combat antisemitism.
In an Aug. 10 letter to Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel Jr., obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show, the signatories urged party leadership to take “all necessary steps” to protect Nessel and other Jewish delegates at the Aug. 29 convention.
The letter comes as Nessel, Michigan's first Jewish person elected to statewide executive office, has escalated her criticism of the state Democratic Party over its handling of antisemitism. Asked Monday whether the Michigan Democratic Party was doing enough to address the issue, Nessel responded, “Absolutely, they're not,” according to the New York Post. “Myself and other Jewish electeds are subjected to a barrage of antisemitic threats,” Nessel said.
Nessel previously announced she would skip the convention because she fears being targeted by activists. “I don't feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn't going to be welcome. I don't want to get chased around. I don't want to get harassed. I don't want to get yelled and screamed at. I don't want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I'm saying,” Nessel said during an antisemitism roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it's been happening to me.”
Nessel also revealed that she had filed a formal complaint within the Michigan Democratic Party after a party official allegedly called her a “neo-Nazi” over her political views, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” Nessel asked, without identifying the official.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said concerns extend beyond Nessel. “She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA. Soifer said other Jewish Democrats who attended a Michigan Democratic convention earlier this year reported feeling uncomfortable amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations that, for some participants, appeared to cross into antisemitic sentiment.
Those concerns follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party's endorsement convention in April, where attendees booed Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, who has been a vocal supporter of Israel. Then-Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow also said an attendee targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
Nessel has also pointed to five people federally indicted in June over an alleged conspiracy involving threats and harassment targeting the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and Democratic officials, some of whom are Jewish. She said the defendants are Michigan Democratic Party members who remain eligible to attend the convention while the charges are pending. “Those people are still permitted to come to the convention,” Nessel told MS NOW. “And it's just baffling to me that while these charges are pending, they're going to be allowed to be there despite, you know, these credible charges against them.”
Nessel has called on the party to enforce a code of conduct preventing activists from harassing attendees or booing speakers off the stage. “We should all have the opportunity to be heard,” she said.
The 200 Jewish leaders who signed Monday's letter are now calling for the party to go further by publicly warning that harassment of Jewish attendees could result in law enforcement action. “We believe you need to make it clear, publicly, that anyone who chases, screams at, or otherwise harasses Jews at your convention will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the letter states.
“Antisemitic harassment is un-American and contrary to the core values of the Democratic Party,” the signatories wrote. “Moreover, it will set a terrible precedent. If Jews—including the highest-ranking Jewish state official in Michigan—are intimidated into staying away from your convention, it will not stop there.”
Signatories include the president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis as well as current and former presidents of the Rabbinical Council of America, Central Conference of American Rabbis and Rabbinical Assembly, according to organizers. The list also includes prominent academics and former senior officials of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The petition was organized by Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and Touro University professor Thane Rosenbaum, an author and constitutional scholar.
Hertel previously said the party was “appalled” by allegations contained in the federal indictment and condemned “all acts of hatred and violence.” A Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson also told the New York Post that the party is “committed to ensuring party-hosted events are safe and secure environments for all attendees” and rejects antisemitism, Islamophobia and other hateful conduct.
The Jewish leaders ended their letter by invoking anti-Israel demonstrators who chanted outside a New York City synagogue last year, “We need to make them scared!”
“Is that threat succeeding?” they asked. “The treatment of Jews at the Michigan Democratic Convention will be a test.”
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