If you’re wondering how any Jewish individual could support Michigan’s antisemitic Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, a new report from the Washington Free Beacon has solved the mystery.
The outlet reports that the “Jews for Abdul” featured in El-Sayed’s ads and social media videos have connections to two different anti-Israel groups. One participant previously worked with Detroit Jews for Justice; two others are affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace. In a statement issued on Oct. 7, 2023, this group attributed the violence to “Israeli apartheid and occupation.”
[Legal Insurrection has covered Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) extensively over the past decade — which I’ll return to shortly.]
Following a review of El-Sayed’s recent ads and social media videos, the Washington Free Beacon found:
A September 8 El-Sayed ad features former Detroit Jews for Justice “Culture and Technology Fellow” Daniel Klein, who sports a yarmulke and poses with his family as El-Sayed says he’ll “be thinking about the people here” in Michigan.
Abdul El-Sayed has attempted to address concerns from Jewish voters with videos touting “Jews for Abdul,” or simply by flashing images of “Jewish” supporters wearing yarmulkes in his political ads.
Those supporters are left-wing “social justice” activists with ties to an… pic.twitter.com/zLBtRcy9Z2
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) September 22, 2026
El-Sayed released a video last week touting a Rosh Hashanah celebration he’d attended at the home of Missy and Elaine Shifman.
According to the Washington Free Beacon [Emphasis added.]:
The Shifmans are a “family of liberal Jewish activists,” according to a 2021 Jewish Telegraphic Agency profile of Missy’s sister Pamela Shifman, who serves as president of the shadowy liberal megadonor group Democracy Alliance. “Melding Jewish expression with social justice was embedded in her upbringing in suburban Detroit,” the piece notes.
That activism includes opposition to the state of Israel. Missy and Elaine Shifman appear to be members of the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace, having filmed a July 29 video for JVP expressing their support for El-Sayed. “For me, being Jewish has always been closely tied to fighting for human rights and social justice for all people,” Elaine says in the video. “Abdul … is someone who believes in the rights and freedoms of every person, no exceptions, including Palestinians,” adds Missy.
It was wonderful to spend Rosh Hashanah last week with Missy and Elaine, two lifelong Michiganders who welcomed me into their home and taught me about the sweet and joyous meaning of Rosh Hashanah. We talked about the work we can do together to build a more just and peaceful… pic.twitter.com/HziA6j4aTq
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) September 20, 2026
As per the report, the group “Jews for Abdul” was started by Barbara Weinberg Barefield, a founding member of Detroit’s JVP chapter, “which hosted a rally accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza nine days after October 7.”
Barefield herself has said Israel and the United States are guilty of “horrific war crimes” and “genocide.” Weinberg Barefield, like El-Sayed, also backed the “Uncommitted” movement that called for a protest vote against former president Joe Biden for being insufficiently anti-Israel. JVP’s political arm endorsed El-Sayed in June.
The group Detroit Jews for Justice is less overt about its anti-Israel leanings than JVP, noting in a news release that “Israel/Palestine is not a core focus of our organizing.” Yet it opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, claiming it “does not adequately address the most dangerous form of antisemitism experienced by Jewish communities in America: white supremacist terror” and fails to provide “an analysis of solidarity and intersecting oppressions.”
Legal Insurrection reported that JVP was founded in 1996 by a small group of left-wing San Francisco Bay Area Jews, and “worked in relative obscurity for years.”
In a 2015 article, LI noted that JVP “established itself as the ‘Jewish wing’ of the Palestinian solidarity movement.”
JVP plays a critical role in numerous aspects of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States by giving Jewish cover.
In so presenting itself as the Jewish justification for BDS, JVP serves the role of washing away the stains of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism which are central to the BDS movement’s founding and conduct.
According to the article:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) considers [JVP] the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States, and lists it among the top ten organizations “fixated with delegitimizing Israel and convincing the American public that Israel is an international villain that deserves to be ostracized and isolated.”
Over the past decade — and particularly since the Oct. 7 massacre — acceptance of antisemitism and the anti-Israeli organizations that promote it has only increased in the U.S.
And I suppose we can’t blame El-Sayed’s campaign for including members of JVP and Detroit Jews for Justice to make it seem like he is gaining traction among Jewish voters.
But Michiganders should not be fooled. These groups are antisemitic at their core, and El-Sayed’s sudden embrace of Jewish constituents is a disingenuous attempt to mislead voters. The politician who once publicly questioned Israel’s right to exist has only changed his stripes because victory in November demands it.
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