Nessel’s Private Remarks to Jewish Democrats in Birmingham Spark Backlash

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat who is Jewish, told a private gathering of Jewish Democrats in Birmingham that they have a moral duty to prioritize the needs of “the rest of humanity” over their own community’s “safety and security,” according to a video recording reviewed by The Detroit News.

The Aug. 30 event was hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish Caucus and closed to the press. In her remarks, Nessel invoked the biblical story of Queen Esther, telling attendees they carry a “moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest” and should be willing to “sacrifice the comfort, safety and security and even the very future of our own people in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity.”

The comments surfaced at a tense moment for Michigan Democrats, where many Jewish voters say they feel pressured to choose between their faith and their party as anti-Israel rhetoric grows among some progressive candidates.

Also at the Birmingham event was Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and a vocal critic of Israel and U.S. military aid to the country. El-Sayed used the gathering to apologize to the Jewish Caucus for past comments he has made about Israel. Nessel has said publicly she will not vote for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, but she has not endorsed El-Sayed, citing concerns over his positions on Israel.

Weighing Israel Against Global Crises

According to the recording, Nessel questioned the value of Israel’s survival against broader global concerns such as climate change.

“What good is defending the historic homeland of our ancestors and demanding that candidates acknowledge its right to exist if the planet upon which it rests is no longer inhabitable?” Nessel asked.

She also described support for former President Donald Trump as an “abdication of our responsibilities as Jews,” saying Jewish tradition calls for “compassionate action toward others” rather than “blind obedience to the world’s biggest and most dangerous fool.”

Nessel acknowledged frustration among some attendees over arguments that equate Zionism with racism, saying such claims are often made “by people whose entire understanding of Jewish-Israeli history fits neatly into a 47-second TikTok produced by Qatar or Iran.” At the same time, she argued Republicans pose a serious threat and criticized the party for emphasizing cultural fights, such as “transgender girls playing JV volleyball,” instead of issues like wealth inequality and artificial intelligence.

Criticism From Outside Observers

Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, pushed back on Nessel’s use of the Esther story. “I am a gay man and lifelong liberal,” Mazzig said. “I understand why many American Jews care so deeply about the Democratic Party. But Esther risked her own safety for the Jewish people’s survival, she didn’t risk them to save others. Using her story this way is not accurate or helpful.”

David Bernstein, a constitutional law professor at George Mason University, offered a sharper assessment. “You may have thought I was exaggerating when I tweeted last week about how a segment of the American Jewish community is suicidal. The real news here is not that Nessel said this, but that she thinks it’s a viable pitch to at least a large segment of an audience of Jewish Democrats,” Bernstein said. He compared the sentiment to “Jewish Stalinists who stayed with Stalin through the pact with Hitler, and then through the antisemitic purges of the late 1940s, because they believed that absorbing this stuff was the price Jews needed to pay for a better world.”

Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Nessel’s office for comment but did not receive a response before publishing its report.

Part of a Broader Pattern

Nessel skipped the recent Michigan Democratic Party convention, citing safety concerns, and has emerged as a prominent voice in the state’s competitive Senate race. In a recent appearance on The Atlantic’s “David Frum Show,” she said the Democratic Party does not value its Jewish constituents as much as it does other minority groups and that Jewish Democrats have felt ostracized by their own party since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. She also said that if forced to choose, she would side with her Jewish heritage over her party affiliation, and she criticized some of El-Sayed’s past comments on Israel before his apology at the Birmingham event.