Dan Live from Michigan’s Temple Israel

Dan Senor (0:00)

There's never been more coverage of Israel in the Jewish world, and there's never been less of it worth trusting.

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Bret Stephens (0:37)

What I do know is that in 2026, the question of the Jews in America is in a meaningful sense on the ballot, just as it's going to be in a more pressing sense on the ballot in 2028 If Israel becomes as toxic in American politics as it now is in European politics, we are all in a world of trouble.

Hillary Scholten (1:00)

People are scared right now. I hear from our Jewish community, especially our young people who have experienced the horrors of a post-October 7th moment on their college campuses.

They're afraid to wear the Star of David. They're afraid to express their Judaism. We are getting attacked left and right. It is a very hostile moment.

Josh Gottheimer (1:21)

We're focused. We know what we need to do to actually overcome it. But overcoming socialism and overcoming anti-Semitism. So I would say we can do this if we stick together, focus and fight and Hillary and I, believe me, are not going quietly. Like they're going to come at us, the socialists, and by the way, we're coming at them.

Dan Senor (1:52)

It's 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13th here in New York City. It's 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14th in Israel, as Israelis turn to a new day.

Before today's episode, a quick housekeeping note. On Thursday, October 22nd, just five days ahead of the Israeli elections, Call Me Back will hold a live taping at the Streicker Center in New York City, where I'll sit down with Dan Shapiro, Dahlia Scheinlin and Bret Stephens to discuss what's at stake in Israel's 2026 election and what its results will mean for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Tickets have gone on sale, so if you want to join us, please follow the link in the episode description.

Now on to today's episode.

We're just three weeks away from the midterm elections in the United States and in Michigan, a state that could determine the control of the United States Senate, Jewish Democrats are facing a difficult choice. For decades, American Jews have been among the Democratic Party's most loyal constituencies. For many, the Democratic Party was their political home. But what happens when that home begins to feel less welcoming? In August, Michigan Democrats nominated Abdul Al Sayed to be their candidate for the United States Senate. Al Sayed, a fierce critic of Israel, who doesn't even recognize the Jewish state's right to exist which he has called a genocidal and apartheid state. And then there was the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, last March when an armed attacker drove his truck into the temple where over 100 young children were present.

Al Sayed condemned the attack but then justified it by adding, and I quote here, Hurt people hurt people. A remark that deeply offended many Jewish voters and not only Jewish voters. Al Sayed defeated the more moderate Congresswoman, Haley Stevens. For many Jewish Democrats, his nomination represents a profound shift in the political party they've supported all their adult lives. Al Sayed has already become a national figure in Democratic politics. If he is elected to the Senate, where will he go from there? Now, consider this dilemma. You're a Democrat. You hold progressive positions on a range of issues. You strongly oppose Donald Trump and much of what he represents. But you also care deeply about the U.S.-Israel relationship, about Jewish safety at home in your own communities in Michigan, and about whether your political party still understands what matters to you as an American Jew.

On November 3rd, you have to cast a ballot. Do you still vote for the Democratic nominee? Do you cross party lines? Or do you sit this one out?

And beyond this election, there's a much larger question. Is the relationship between American Jews and the Democratic party going through a temporary crisis? Or are we witnessing the beginning of a historic political realignment?

On Monday night, seven months after the attack at Temple Israel, I hosted conversations before a live audience of over 1,000 members of the local Jewish community in the metro Detroit area at Temple Israel. Our conversations touched on some of these issues that I've laid out here. Nobody was told who to vote for or how to think specifically about this election, but we wrestled with these issues, and it's hard to imagine a more fitting place to ask these questions. We will begin this episode with remarks I delivered to frame the conversations that evening. Then I had a conversation with New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who is also editor-in-chief of Superior Journal. And following that conversation with Bret, I led a conversation with two Democratic members of Congress, Hillary Scholten of Michigan and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. Those conversations right after this short message.