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<\/a><\/p>\nTemple Israel Rabbi Jen Lader talks to a reporter in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 13, 2026, after an person identified as Ayman Ghazali drove a vehicle into the temple building. (Jeff Kowalsky\/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rabbi Jen Lader criticized Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former county health executive, for \u201csuggesting that violence against a synagogue in suburban Detroit could be understood through the lens of Israeli actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lader\u2019s op-ed, published Friday in The Free Press, marked an instance of a rabbi publicly opposing a specific political candidate \u2014 a once-rare occurrence that has become more normalized. It came days after El-Sayed, who is taking the left flank in a close three-way primary for an open seat, held two rallies with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, whom some Jewish leaders have accused of antisemitism for his harsh commentary on Israel and Zionism.<\/p>\n
Lader\u2019s commentary didn\u2019t mention Piker or the recent rallies. Instead, the rabbi parsed two statements El-Sayed had made following the Temple Israel attack last month: an initial statement condemning antisemitism, which she commended, and lengthy follow-up remarks that also discussed Israel\u2019s war in Lebanon, where the attacker\u2019s brother was killed. (The FBI has concluded that the Temple Israel attacker, who drove a car filled with fireworks into the building during a preschool session before shooting himself, was \u201dHezbollah-inspired.\u201d) <\/p>\n
El-Sayed\u2019s second statement, the rabbi said, was \u201coffensive\u201d and undermined the first. <\/p>\n
\u201cMichigan\u2019s Jews are not abstractions or stand-ins for a foreign government,\u201d Lader wrote in a piece with the headline \u201cThe Two Faces of Abdul El-Sayed.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a local community of families who gather to pray, to learn, to celebrate, and to mourn together,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen we are violently attacked, it is not an understandable reaction to personal loss. It is antisemitic hatred directed at Jews wherever we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
A request for comment to El-Sayed\u2019s campaign was not immediately returned. The candidate has repeatedly defended his decision to invoke Israel\u2019s war in his statement on the attack, including when he spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency following his rallies this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany of my friends growing up worshipped at Temple Israel. Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,\u201d El-Sayed told JTA on Tuesday. \u201cI also think it\u2019s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cI think some people tried to quote that out of context, and I understand that\u2019s how politics works. I\u2019m not here to defend myself, but I will tell you this: I will always stand up to defend my Jewish sisters and brothers who are fighting for an equal right to be who they are, to express their beautiful faith in the way that I choose to express mine.\u201d<\/p>\n