Does Jewish existence conflict with human survival? – opinion

Nessel asserted that Jews need “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.”

By Rafael Medoff, Jewish Journal

Is there a conflict between the existence of the Jewish people and the survival of mankind? The attorney-general of Michigan thinks so. She has chosen her side in this alleged conflict—and it’s not the side of the Jews.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, recently told a meeting of Michigan Jewish Democrats that they need “to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival.”

Nessel asserted that Jews need “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.”

According to Nessel, if Jews focus on “demanding that candidates acknowledge [Israel’s] right to exist,” the result could be that Republicans might win some elections, and then “the planet upon which [Israel] rests is no longer inhabitable.”

Nessel first drew national attention early in the summer, when she said she was afraid to attend Michigan’s Democratic Party convention because as a Jew, “I don’t feel safe going…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…And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen.”

Her concerns certainly were valid. Earlier this year, California State Senator Scott Wiener was surrounded, harassed, and chased by Hamas supporters while he was walking through a San Francisco park.

And just this past weekend, New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander—himself a strident critic of Israel—was harassed and heckled outside Madison Square Garden by protesters who “accused him of being a Zionist,” as news reports put it.

As it turns out, however, Nessel had no reason to fear for her personal safety at the Michigan convention, because her declared willingness to sacrifice Jewish survival for the sake of Democratic election victories surely would have pleased the antisemitic delegates at the convention.

Perhaps this disturbing turn of events was predictable, given Nessel’s previous surrender to the pro-Hamas crowd.

In 2024, the Michigan attorney general brought charges against 11 anti-Israel extremists who illegally occupied part of the University of Michigan campus and obstructed the police officers who came to dismantle their encampment.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and others screamed at Nessel. Tlaib called the charges “a shameful attack on students’ rights.” Apparently, Tlaib believes that anti-Israel protesters have a right to trespass and obstruct the police. If the student protesters had been pro-Israel, would Tlaib and company have supported their right to break the law? Unlikely.

The criticism proved too much for Nessel, who soon collapsed and dropped the charges. Remarkably, Nessel explained that while there was ample evidence to convict the defendants, the “circus-like atmosphere” around the case—created by Tlaib and company—convinced her to drop the case.

Of course, a mob is never satisfied with just one concession. It demands total surrender. So it wasn’t enough that Nessel let the anti-Israel lawbreakers go scot free; she had to be willing to sacrifice the very existence of the Jewish people. And, sadly, she has now announced her willingness to do exactly that.

History is littered with examples of Jews who sacrificed the well-being of their fellow-Jews in order to advance what they were told were the needs of mankind.

Russian Jewish communists who joined Stalin’s campaign to stamp out Jewish communal life in the Soviet Union claimed they were doing so for the sake of peace and progress.

American Jewish anti-Zionists who campaigned against the creation of a Jewish state in the midst of the Holocaust—when Jewish refugees desperately needed a haven—insisted they were trying to create a world of equality and enlightenment for all people.

That is the company with whom Nessel has now associated herself.

Nessel asked her audience of Michigan Jewish Democrats: “Come November, what do your Jewish values tell you to do?”

Unlike Nessel, most Jews still consider the existence of the Jewish people, and the Jewish state, to be a Jewish value. They’re proud to be Jews—and they’re equally proud of the role Jews have played in human history. They don’t see a conflict between the two. It’s not surprising antisemites don’t see it that way, but it’s troubling that Nessel doesn’t either.

Dr. Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust. Follow him on Facebook to read his daily commentaries on the news.