Joe Tigay of Bloomfield Hills identifies as a longtime progressive Democrat.And Jewish.For him, Abdul El-Sayed's narrow win over fellow Democrat Haley Stevens in the Aug. 4 primary for a pivotal seat in the U.S. Senate represents not a victory by progressives over the establishment, as it is often framed, but a triumph of radicalism and the normalization of rhetoric he believes puts Jewish people at risk from violence."It is just a scary time right now," Tigay, 44, who has three young children, said in an Aug. 5 telephone interview.As Michigan Democrats gather in Detroit on the night of Aug. 7 for a unity rally to launch their general election campaign, many Michigan Jews are alarmed by El-Sayed's win and there is widespread agreement El-Sayed needs to do more than he has so far to win Jewish support.Specific concerns identified by Michigan Jewish voters in interviews with the Detroit Free Press include:The March 13 video message that El-Sayed issued one day after the terrorist attack in which a Dearborn Heights man committed suicide after ramming a pickup truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township while an on-site school was in session. Though El-Sayed's message condemned the attack and antisemitism, he also noted that the alleged attacker lost family members in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon. "Violence always begets violence," El-Sayed said, because "hurt people hurt people." Many Jewish people interpreted that as making an excuse for the attack.Campaigning with Hasan Piker. The controversial far-left political commentator and critic of Israel, known for once saying that America "deserved" the 9/11 terrorist attack, spoke at El-Sayed events at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in April and also appeared, though he did not speak, at an El-Sayed campaign event in Detroit on Aug. 3. El-Sayed has said he disagrees with some of Piker's statements but had not otherwise distanced himself from him, saying it is important for Democrats to engage with a wider audience.Refusing to say whether Israel has the right to exist. During the recent campaign, El-Sayed often deflected the question into another question, saying, for example, that the real question is whether Israel has a right to U.S. tax dollars to support its military budget.Frequent characterization of Israeli military operations in Gaza, which have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians since 2023, as "genocide." The bombings and other military actions by Israel came in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas, which killed more than 1,100 people. Many Michigan Jewish voters who don't oppose criticism of Israeli government actions view it as a loaded term that has been redefined in a way that could provoke hatred and violence against Jews.Tigay, a financial advisor who said he twice voted for former President Barack Obama and in 2016 got involved in advocacy efforts to oppose Republican President Donald Trump, said his reaction to El-Sayed's win is somewhat reminiscent of how he felt when Trump won in 2016 after invoking racist "dog whistles" in campaign speeches and Republican friends told him they voted for Trump despite not agreeing with his apparent views on immigrants and minorities."Republicans should stand up to that," Tigay said. Similarly, "just because ... Democrats want to win, I don’t think they should compromise their morals."Asked what El-Sayed could do to make him feel more comfortable about supporting him, Tigay said: "If he says Israel has a right to exist, that would be great."Barring a major change like that one, "I don't think I could vote for El-Sayed," Tigay said. "I'm very likely to vote for Mike Rogers," the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield said much of the fear and concern related to El-Sayed's win stems from his statement after the attack on Temple Israel, when he chose to "falsely justify an act of terrorism."Further, “if a right-wing politician were to platform a member of the Ku Klux Klan, we would be outraged," Starr said in an Aug. 6 telephone interview. "In the same way, when Dr. El-Sayed platforms Hassan Piker, we are outraged.”'Fear and anxiety'Starr said El-Sayed's primary victory comes amid "a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety because of the rapid rise of Jew hatred around the world and locally," to the point where even Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish and has received numerous death threats, has said she doesn't feel safe attending the Michigan Democratic Party nominating convention on Aug. 29 in Lansing.Nessel, at a July 30 roundtable with the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan, cited what she sees as rising antisemitism on the political left and concerns about being "booed off the stage," and harassed. Nessel, through a spokeswoman, declined an Aug. 5 request for an interview.Starr said he and many members of his congregation are "very concerned about Dr. El-Sayed’s false statements about Israel and his misunderstanding of the situation in the Middle East," and "how the rhetoric he uses foments hate and maybe even violence.""At the same time, we hope that his comments about desiring to protect the American Jewish community are honest and we hope that all candidates for public office are seeking to bring down and lower the temperature on the vitriol and the rhetoric of division."El-Sayed did move to lower the temperature in his Aug. 5 victory speech in Detroit, outside City Hall.“To my Jewish sisters and brothers," El-Sayed said Wednesday, "one of the most indelible memories of this campaign will have been the opportunity to break bread with you at seder, to worship with you at shul, to be embraced by you."Appearing on CNN on the night of Aug. 5, El-Sayed said Jewish safety is a priority for him and as a Muslim, "I don't want anyone discriminated against for how they pray."Asked on CNN about Nessel's comments about feeling unsafe attending the Democratic nominating convention, El-Sayed said he hopes Nessel attends the convention and feels safe."Up until recently, we had a great relationship," El-Sayed said of Nessel.It's important to differentiate between antisemitism and criticism of the actions of foreign governments, and "I think that's the place that the attorney general and I might disagree," he said.The El-Sayed campaign did not immediately respond to an Aug. 6 email seeking responses to criticism directed at him from Jewish people in Michigan.Bernie Porn, who is the president of the Lansing-based EPIC-MRA polling firm, said in an Aug. 6 interview that Jewish voters, who have comprised a significant and reliable Democratic voting bloc, could impact what is expected to be a close election against Rogers, a former member of Congress from White Lake Township.'Uphill battle'“I think El-Sayed has an uphill battle to try to convince Jewish voters to support him," said Porn, who is not Jewish."He needs to make the case and it will be a tough case to make. There are a lot of Jewish voters who have talked to me who have said they will have a tough time voting for El-Sayed."Asked about El-Sayed campaigning with Piker, “if I were advising El-Sayed I would tell him to throw him under the bus," Porn said.Though concerns about El-Sayed's views on Israel extend beyond Jewish voters, Porn noted that there are about twice as many Muslim or Arab voters in Michigan as there are Jewish ones and El-Sayed should also benefit from a stronger youth vote than Stevens would have drawn. At the same time, Stevens performed much better with Black voters than El-Sayed did, Porn said.State Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, who is Jewish, said in an Aug. 6 text message he crunched some of the numbers from the primary and they show Stevens won his district by a 2:1 margin over El-Sayed."I hope to have the opportunity to meet with Abdul El-Sayed soon to communicate my deep concerns about some of the rhetoric of his campaign and the impact it has had on members of the Jewish community I represent and that he hopes to represent," Arbit said.And there are other political concerns.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supported Stevens in the primary, released a statement saying the group would continue to oppose El-Sayed in the general election. The New York Times reported Aug. 5 that AIPAC is considering a major financial campaign in support of Rogers.Of course, Michigan's Jewish community is not monolithic.'Good intentions'Clare Molnar of Ferndale, a Jewish mother of three, said in an Aug. 6 phone interview she first supported El-Sayed when he was a Democratic candidate for Michigan governor in 2018 and she enthusiastically voted for him in the Aug. 4 primary for the U.S. Senate.Both times, "I felt he was speaking to voters and not to special interests," said Molnar, who has been dissatisfied with Stevens' public positions on issues, as well as a personal interaction she had with the congresswoman during a meeting.Molnar said she strongly supports El-Sayed's three main campaign themes of Medicare for all, getting big money out of politics, and putting more money in people's pockets."He has good intentions," Molnar said, and "we do not have to agree on every issue."She said that as a Jewish person, she at first had a difficult time applying the word "genocide" to anything other than the Nazi holocaust that was aimed at Jews. But the more she learned about Israeli military actions in Gaza, the more she concluded the word is appropriate for the situation, and she now uses it to describe the conduct of the Israeli government.As for El-Sayed's statement after the attack on Temple Israel, Molnar said the criticism doesn't align with the facts.In his video statement, Molnar noted, El-Sayed said: "Antisemitism has no place in our communities. Ever. Full stop," and "there is never a justification for attacking innocent people or houses of worship. Never." She said that his comments later in the statement about the cycle of violence were appropriate and were not an attempt to make excuses for the attacker.Molnar said she views questions about Israel's right to exist as "gotcha" questions, and "I honestly admire his refusal to engage" with them.Asked about campaigning with Piker, Molnar noted that Piker later apologized for saying that America deserved the 9/11 attack and she generally likes to give people some grace and the benefit of the doubt.Still, "it would be best if he campaigned less with Piker," Molnar said. "I'm not sure it's worth it."Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.