Abdul El-Sayed and Antisemitism

I am a retired academic and am still a scholar. I’m an historian of religion focused on Biblical studies, early Judaism, and early Christianity, but I have a long interest in the relationship of ancient religious history to modern narratives, especially about the Middle East. I’m broad gauged and cover a lot of historical territory. I have worked quite a bit on the history of antisemitism and have taught a wide array of courses, including on the Shoah and genocide more broadly.

To say that I was disappointed in many of the remarks on El-Sayed coming from academics (even some historians), political organizers, politicians, and pundits is an understatement. This is a man who has consistently engaged in antisemitic rhetoric, imagery, and policy positions.

El-Sayed’s attacks on Jews is a long list: the refusal of him to recognize that Jews have a right to a homeland while not denying it to any other group; relentless references to AIPAC and Zionism; his refusal to acknowledge that Jews are a people, not just a “faith” or a “religion”; his campaign with Hasan Piker right to the end of the primary and primary election day (as you know, Piker has a said a lot of vile things, especially about Jews); rarely and reluctantly referencing what Hamas did on October 7, 2023 (which he again omitted in a fundraising email referencing that day).

Maybe I should repeat what Hamas actually did on October 7 since it’s apparently easy to forget: they murdered civilians in their homes and at a rave concert; they raped scores of people; they cut off body parts of every kind; they burned people to death; they brutalized and tortured people in countless ways; and on and on. It was the largest massacre of Jews since the Shoah. 

When you talk about Zionism, you have to remember that 90% of Jews support a democratic, Jewish state. That’s effectively Zionism. When you attack “Zionists,” you are effectively attacking virtually all Jews.

El-Sayed also praised Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt, and asked him to remove anyone from government or employment who was part of the Hosni Mubarak regime. Hamas is in fact a part of the Muslim Brotherhood.

El-Sayed said that “hurt people hurt people” after the terrorist attack on the Michigan synagogue, Temple Israel (see below for more commentary) where 150 pre-k children were located. The terrorist was trying to murder everyone. More recently his own campaign produced an advertisement featuring Tucker Carlson and “America First” (you know, referencing Charles Lindbergh, well known admirer of Adolf Hitler) apparently as a way of cozying up to MAGA. This ad was clearly an antisemitic reference to Jews, Israel, and dual loyalty. The antisemitism is gross and almost impossible to miss, though a lot of people try. Now he has refused to condemn an advertisement produced by Rebellion PAC that blamed the only Jewish country in the world for high grocery prices, especially for eggs. Nor has he asked that the PAC take it down. Blaming Jews for high prices is one of the oldest antisemitic tropes around. Take “Israel” out and put in “Jews,” and it sounds virtually same as the rhetoric of Joseph Goebbels and Hitler during the 1930s that sought to blame Jews for high inflation.

As a scholar of antisemitism, associating Jews with money and inflation is one of the most classic antisemitic tropes there is. If you can’t see it here, you’re not going to be able to see it anywhere. You simply have decided that you don’t want to see it. There’s probably nothing I can do to dissuade you. You have put on blinders and will not take them off. Taking “Jews” out and putting in the only Jewish state in the world–Israel–is not some kind of skilled rhetorical trick, but an obvious word game that anyone with the most primitive analysis should be able to see. If I were teaching a course on this topic, I would use this advertisement as a perfect illustration of blaming Jews for economic problems. It’s one more example in a long list of virtue signalling where attacking Jews is viewed as a virtuous act because Jews are allegedly greedy, power hungry, clannish, and violent, among many other things.

On the Temple Israel attack, El-Sayed had two different apologies, one public and one private. They were not the same (the public one angered a lot of Jews). But (1) an apology can lead to forgiveness, but that does not mean Jews and others who are upset will vote for him. Forgiving is not the same as forgetting. (2) Non-Jews do not get to determine what counts as an apology. It’s up to the aggrieved party to make that decision. There may be some Jews who see it differently, but the vast majority have made their views known. (3) An apology is not merely a series of words. An apology is even more importantly a commitment to a behavioral change. That shows that the person means what he/she has said. If anything, however, El-Sayed’s rhetoric and advertising about Jews have gotten worse. That makes his apology–which was confusing at best–seem empty and meaningless.

I watched El-Sayed’s “hurt people hurt people” video. It was atrocious. If this was said about any other group within twenty-four hours of the event, it would have been roundly condemned. Can people imagine anyone referring to the Sandy Hook mass-murderer shooter within twenty-four hours of the event by saying that he grew up in a difficult family situation? Can people imagine someone saying “hurt people hurt people” after the shooting at AME Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina,” Can people imagine saying to the family of a murder victim or a rape victim, “Well, it’s awful what happened, but hurt people hurt people.” This is revolting. Anyone with an ounce of therapeutic skills in a difficult situation should know that, once you say something like that, everything else you say is ruined. Honestly I don’t know how any reasonable person can watch that video and think that he isn’t minimizing the potential slaughter of a 150 children. I watched it a second time a few days ago, and I was even more appalled than the first time. Do others not understand what this feels like to people under assault and threat? 

I’m a strong liberal Jewish voter. I have almost always voted Democratic. To say what I’m saying goes against every fiber of my political being.  I would, however, never vote for El-Sayed (though I don’t live in Michigan) or anyone who engages in anti-Jewish racist rhetoric. That is a no-go for most Jews, and you will likely see a significant decline in Jewish support for him. Even most of those Jews who vote for him will do so holding their noses, knowing that he makes them unsafe, but that democracy is also crucial.  

Talk about a “multi-racial democracy” means nothing if one of the groups in this democracy are vilified, shunned, mocked, threatened, and face crimes and violence that has massively increased in recent years. History has shown time and time again that societies and representative democracies which treat Jews in this way don’t end up staying very health, Weimar Germany being the prime example. One of the people who has helped to create this climate is Abdul El-Sayed. The antisemitic wave we’re seeing is much bigger than him, but he seems happy to surf it. 

Jews are only .2% of the global population (16 million out of 8 billion) and only 1.3% of the Michigan population (maybe 2% of those who will vote). I doubt that their opposition to him will prevent him from winning.

We Jews have learned over the years that most people don’t care about us, that, when push comes to shove, we will be abandoned and left to our own devices. That’s what it feels like now and that’s what your words about El-Sayed feel to me. Other than African Americans, Jews have been the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party since FDR. We have voted against our own financial interests, because we know that there are bigger dangers and issues at risk. But when the national mood shifts and everyone starts focusing on Gaza, the Democratic Party apparatus and especially those on the left abandoned us like a hot potato. 

At Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, there’s the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles memorializing those non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during the Shoah. They were people who decided not to be bystanders and to risk their lives against the surging torrent of Jew hatred. We’re always on the lookout for people like that. Sometimes we’re right about our predictions. Sometimes we’re wrong. But we have a decent idea of what looks like moral courage. That’s why what other supposed “allies” and “progressives” are saying is so disappointing for those of us who have respected them and looked up to them. 

I know it’s silly because almost everyone ends up disappointing you if you’re Jewish in moments of crisis. Rarely do people get up in public and say “this is wrong; stop it.” There are many on social media and elsewhere praising El-Sayed, and they’re doing what most people do when Jewish well-being and lives are at stake. They did not speak up when they could have done so. Maybe that makes me kind of a chump to expect anything, but I would still rather live with hope than despair. Top put it mildly, its disappointing that so many people who claim a mantle of compassion and empathy are not any different from the other bystanders across the centuries who did not call out antisemitism when they had the opportunity to do so.

When a group of people broadly conclude what constitutes bigotry against them and point this out, most serious observers accept the truth of this and move on to discuss how to address things. Right now, however, many people refuse to accept what most Jews are telling them. They assume that they know as much about antisemitism as Jews do. They’ll also often engage in tokenization, which means in this context finding a tiny minority of a group who agree with them and then holding up those few individuals as representative of that group when they’re not (like claiming that Candace Owens and Clarence Thomas are representative of most African Americans when they’re clearly not). This is also bigotry, however.

Non-Jews do not get to tell Jews what antisemitism is. They don’t have the requisite knowledge and experience to do so. When you’re a minority, especially a tiny minority like Jews  and have suffered persecution, discrimination, and violence for thousands of years, you know a lot about the topic of anti-Jewish bigotry about which others are simply not sufficiently informed.

Jews have historically not been safe anywhere globally. I believe that El-Sayed and others who share his views, especially the DSA (though El-Sayed is actually a Democrat), want to drive Jews out of the public square and possibly out of this country. You may think that’s far-fetched, but history tells us otherwise. Of course, things can change just as quickly as they started, but anyone who knows Jewish history, knows the signs when the tide turns against Jews: money tropes, clannishness tropes, dual loyalty accusations, complaints about Jewish power, accusations of Jews causing plagues and murdering children. All this and more is what’s happening now, and El-Sayed is a big part of it.

My expectation is that it will burn itself out, as hate usually does, but it’s certainly reasonable for American Jews to take this into consideration. Countries that have vilified Jews or driven Jews out of their lands have not fared very well after doing so. For those who who are concerned about the future of the U.S., you should know that Jews are the canary in the coalmine. What starts with Jews, never ends with Jews.