Just north of the highway through Southfield, Mich., stands Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a modern synagogue that has anchored Jewish life in suburban Detroit since the 1960s. Across the road, Umma, a Muslim congregation that opened this year, draws hundreds to Friday prayers. Both communities share a persistent fear of hate crimes, heightened by this year's high-stakes Senate race. The Democratic nominee, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, would be the country's first Muslim senator if elected, and his candidacy has drawn Islamophobic rhetoric from supporters of Republican opponent Mike Rogers, including President Trump. At the same time, El-Sayed has been accused of stoking antisemitism with his criticism of Israel.
Some lifelong Democrats are considering voting for Rogers—or not voting at all. "Somehow we're suddenly arguing about which candidate we are most afraid of," said Andy Bocknek, a financial planner and former president of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, site of a violent antisemitic attack in March. "There's a lot of pain in this current moment for us."
In Southfield and Oakland County, Muslim and Jewish voters make up a significant slice of the electorate. Foreign policy and local politics are intertwined—urgent and personal. Many Jewish voters worry about a repeat of the Temple Israel attack, while Muslim voters fear Islamophobic violence. The campaign plays out against a backdrop of Arab and Muslim voters feeling forsaken by the Democratic Party over its support of Israel, and Jewish voters expressing their own sense of abandonment as party sentiment shifts against Israel.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing