Nessel says she won’t attend Michigan Dems convention over safety concerns 

At a roundtable discussion with Jewish leaders and community members from around the state, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she will not attend the Michigan Democratic Party’s nominating convention in August because she does not feel safe to be there. 

“I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” she said at the Thursday event. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”

She criticized party leadership for not responding to concerns she said she has raised about members who have harassed her in the past, and compared the rise of antisemitism on the political left and in the Democratic Party to the proliferation of neo-Nazi organizations in far-right fringe politics. 

“I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that some things have changed,” Nessel said. “This cannot continue, and the fact of the matter is, we have to be able to be a society where we can have intelligent discourse and debate about ideas without people being threatened, and certainly without people carrying out those threats.”

Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party said in response to Nessel’s comments that the party is committed to “ensuring party-hosted events are safe and secure environments for all attendees.”

“We reject antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hateful conduct. We are working diligently with stakeholders, elected officials, and party membership to prepare for our August convention and look forward to welcoming Michigan Democrats to the Lansing Center on August 29,” he continued.

Her comments came as part of a broader conversation about antisemitism in the state — including a March attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, which the FBI said they believed was inspired by Hezbollah. 

Rabbi Arianna Gordon, Temple Israel’s Director of Education and Lifelong Learning, said that the lasting impacts of the March attack are seen in the fact that the congregation will be displaced for months, and that students, parents and teachers still face panic when they hear sirens or fire alarms. 

“To me, that’s what antisemitism is,” she said. “How are we managing that? How are we supporting our families? How are we protecting our families at Temple Israel? The cost that we are putting in to secure our building right now is unbelievable, and that’s a cost that insurance doesn’t cover.”

The impacts of antisemitism on a local level were also markedly felt by community members, as multiple roundtable participants described. 

Jennifer Stevens, the parent of a middle school student in Brighton, also shared stories of her 11-year-old child facing antisemitic bullying from his peers — two explicit incidents of fellow students using antisemitic language towards him that she says the school failed to properly address. 

“So far, we have been underwhelmed,” she said. “While the students who participated directly in these acts were punished, there has been little to no effort by the school to engage in any type of education, whether it be from the students or the educators.”

Stevens added that she fears for her younger daughter — who is Black, adopted, female and Jewish, which Stevens described as a “conglomeration of minorities that have little to no representation in Livingston County” — who will attend that same school in a few years. 

“My biggest frustration is how to get the school administration in a predominantly white and Christian area to understand how severe this is and how it cannot and should not be treated like other bullying cases,” Stevens continued. “They’re resistant to understanding how antisemitism presents itself differently from other forms of hate and therefore needs specialized attention.”

Dr. Michael Ambrose, the parent of a student in Beverly Hills, said that his district was quite engaged, a contrast to the schools in Brighton — although, in his case, the antisemitic behavior was coming from a parent, not another student. But despite the school’s commitment to enacting a parent code of conduct before the start of the upcoming school year, he said he wants to see more. 

“I still do get the sense that they’ve got to be walking on eggshells, and they’re worried about being so careful that they don’t want to upset anybody,” he said. “Call out antisemitism for what it is.”