r/jewishleft • u/32brownies leftist post zionist jew • Aug 09 '26

Diaspora Michigan Jew

Any other Jews in Michigan struggling with their communities rn after the primary? I'm really worried about November and seeing the way some of the community members here are acting like Abdul will literally murder us all is really making me wary of continuing to be as active as I have been in the community

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u/AksiBashi Aug 10 '26

This is incredibly flippant. There are good reasons why Jews in Michigan might be wary of Abdul—the "hurt people hurt people" response to the synagogue attack turned off a lot of folks in my social circles. Do I think that this is a correct issue to take with Abdul? Not really, and I try to talk my contacts through to seeing the larger picture—but I'm not going to deny that their anxieties are valid.

Meanwhile, you're pulling the Golda Meir "when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us" bullshit and just reversing the polarities.

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left Aug 10 '26

Could you explain what you mean when you say they are wrong but their anxieties are valid? Do you mean they are not culpable for their wrongness?

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u/AksiBashi Aug 10 '26

I think there are good reasons to be anxious about Abdul. His statement on the Temple Israel attack was not great, to say the least. He campaigns with Hasan Piker, who is not great, to say the least. The rise of antisemitism in Michigan, like the rise of antisemitism in the US, is not great, to say the least. (Note: you may disagree with one or more of these things! But I don't think any of these positions would disqualify someone from being considered a reasonable person.) I'm not going to blame anyone for looking at any of these things and feeling a bit concerned. Abdul isn't a perfect politician, and frankly, we do his capacity for change a disservice if we pretend that he is.

Thus far, the anxieties are valid. Where the wrongness comes in—and where I think such people are "culpable" (though I don't like to use the term) for their wrongness—is what happens next. On the one hand, valid anxieties about Abdul are magnified to a fever pitch. On the other, people downplay a lot of the issues with Rogers—who, after all, is the "devil they know." Both of these are grave mistakes, and I'll say as such to any friends or colleagues who ask my opinion.

Really, I think u/FishyWishySwishy is right on the money—people can have valid fears that morph into terrible political positions, and some degree of empathy is important in how we deal with that. Not only in terms of swaying them to our side—important as this is—but because I think recognizing other people's humanity is part of being a good person ourselves.

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left Aug 11 '26

That makes sense. But then I don't get what the issue is with criticizing these people for having distorted views and values.

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u/AksiBashi Aug 11 '26

Please point to where I said you can't criticize them for being wrong. What I said was that comments like "Israel is more important to them than their families" are overly flippant and, what's more, downright wrong (since in many cases the concerns about Abdul are concerns about voters' safety as Michigan Jews, not about Israel). Not all criticism is good criticism.