A prominent Jewish Democratic donor in Chicago is raising alarms that growing efforts to demonize AIPAC and its engagement in political campaigns are part of a more sinister effort to make pro-Israel Jews feel unwelcome in a party they have long called home.

In an opinion article published in The Chicago Tribune on Tuesday headlined “Why I support AIPAC and a big tent Democratic Party,” Michael Sacks, an asset manager and longtime ally of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, pointed to what he called a “double standard” for AIPAC’s political involvement, and warned of “a coordinated effort to make support for Israel a litmus test for Democratic primary candidates in 2026 and beyond.”

“Let’s be clear: The campaign against AIPAC is not a policy discussion,” he wrote. “It’s a thinly disguised effort to make support for Israel politically toxic in the Democratic Party, to chase Jews and their allies out of our big tent coalition.”

His public comments on a hot-button issue come in the wake of a contentious primary cycle in Illinois earlier this month, where AIPAC’s spending in a range of contested House races was a subject of particularly heated criticism that is expected to play a role in the midterms and 2028 presidential election. 

His op-ed also lands as some Democratic leaders have distanced themselves from AIPAC, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a rumored 2028 presidential contender and a former AIPAC donor who in recent interviews has said he abandoned the pro-Israel group because it leaned too heavily to the right and lost its commitment to bipartisanship. He has also accused AIPAC of “interference” in Illinois’ recent House races, where its affiliated groups spent more than $20 million across four major primaries.

Despite their differences over AIPAC, Pritzker defended Sacks on Tuesday during an unrelated press conference. “Do I think that people who supported AIPAC can be good Democrats? I can tell you Michael Sacks is a very good, decent, honorable human being who cares deeply about the Democratic values I expressed to you,” Pritzker said. 

He added that it was “very unfair for people to have targeted” Sacks “when what he believes is the same thing,” referring to “the security of the state of Israel and the security of the Palestinian people at the very same time.”

During the primaries, Sacks himself faced personal blowback after a progressive House candidate said he was rejecting his campaign contribution because of Sacks’ ties to AIPAC — a move Sacks lamented at the time as a sign of growing “anti-Israel sentiment and outright Jew hate.”

Sacks contributed a combined $1.2 million to two super PACS linked to AIPAC that faced scrutiny for obscuring their donors until after the primaries on March 17. He also donated to pro-Israel candidates who were backed by AIPAC, including former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL), who clinched the nomination in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, and state Sen. Laura Fine, who lost to an outspoken Israel critic in Illinois’ 9th.

In the Tribune, Sacks clarified that he has not always aligned with AIPAC, saying he had “stepped away” from the group in 2017 over its fierce opposition to President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement, after decades of involvement.

But following the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Sacks wrote, “as I watched anti-Israel sentiment accelerate within my party, including in Illinois,” he reconnected with AIPAC, asking how he could help to “ensure we didn’t send more people to Congress from Chicago who would deny Israel access to even essential defensive weapons.”

His experience observing the Illinois primaries, where other special-interest groups linked to the crypto and artificial intelligence industries had also invested heavily, ultimately exposed what he called a “stark and deliberate” attempt to single out AIPAC and broader pro-Israel activism as a unique source of backlash, he said, arguing that such criticism had not been evenly allocated throughout the campaign.

“I don’t agree with everything Israel and AIPAC do. Like many Israeli leaders as well as elected officials who receive AIPAC support, I believe in a two-state solution,” Sacks wrote. “If you’re not for two states, you’re for endless war. I also believe in a big tent Democratic Party. Democratic leaders claim to be for those things as well. Yet we demonize AIPAC and pro-Israel Jewish Democrats, while accepting those who cannot even say they support a two-state solution that includes Israel.”

Sacks, who chaired the 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee in Chicago, concluded the op-ed with a call to “Democratic leadership to brave this issue,” saying “we need more thermostats and fewer thermometers.”

“Real leadership recognizes that we can hold complicated views about the Israeli government and still refuse to make Jewish identity and pro-Israel sentiment a political disqualifier in our party,” he said in his article on Tuesday. “We can defend the big tent when it is inconvenient, not just when it is easy.”