A teacher at the Michigan synagogue and preschool attacked by an Islamic terrorist in May stated that she would not be voting for Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, despite being a lifelong Democrat, because of his apparent lack of regard for the Jewish community.
After the attack took place, which began after a heavily armed Hezbollah-aligned terrorist rammed his car into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, El-Sayed justified the attack by stating that “hurt people hurt people.”
The attacker’s family members, who were also identified as Hezbollah fighters, were killed in Lebanon by an Israeli strike prior to the attack.
“Abdul El-Sayed stands for everything that I believe in, everything, except that he does not support the Jewish community,” Elise Otis, the teacher at Temple Israel, said. That is a big point for me. I have children, and God willing, will have grandchildren one day, and nieces and nephews, but he doesn’t support them, so I can’t support him.”
“I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel safe with him,” Otis added.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Months after El-Sayed’s comments about the attack, the candidate said that his “comments might have been misconstrued.”
“To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright,” he added.
Despite his apology, national Jewish organizations have continued to raise awareness over their skepticism of El-Sayed.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that focuses on combatting the defamation of Jewish people, accused El-Sayed of “peddling in antisemitic tropes” in a statement in August.
“Throughout the campaign, ADL has called out nominee Abdul El-Sayed for peddling in antisemitic tropes … or for campaigning with notorious bigot Hasan Piker,” Greenblatt said in a video statement. “Campaign trail rhetoric and actions send clear signals about what a person believes and what a political party thinks is permissible.”
“We are not going to stop, and we will keep calling on political leaders and candidates from both parties to reject antisemitism and to commit to combating it whenever and wherever it occurs,” he added.
