A recent open letter from Jewish Michiganders expressing support for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed includes a series of figures with fringe or extremist views and backgrounds alongside several prominent members of the Jewish community.

El-Sayed’s campaign promoted the letter, which includes more than 800 total signatories, as a show of force for the candidate as he works to court Jewish voters as the general election nears. Meanwhile, other prominent leaders in the Jewish community have said they are not ready to vote for El-Sayed without changes in his stances on Israel or they plan to support his Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).

The fringe figures on the letter also highlight the campaign’s ongoing struggles in appealing to mainstream Jews in Michigan — further highlighted by a recent video released by El-Sayed for Rosh Hashanah that featured two women connected to the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. State Rep. Noah Arbit, who founded the Michigan Jewish Democratic Caucus, condemned the video as “tokenism.”

At the same time, the letter’s signatories include prominent members of the Jewish community such as former Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), attorney general nominee Eli Savit and Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Chair Decky Alexander. The letter states that the signatories are not all in lockstep — that some are enthusiastic supporters of El-Sayed while others are more reluctant and harbor concerns about his policy on Israel and language employed by his allies.

Perhaps the most widely discussed signatory on the list has been Liano Sharon, a progressive activist and Michigan Democratic Party officer facing disciplinary action from the state party for suggesting that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — whom he previously described as a “neo-Nazi” — should face a Nuremberg-style trial and potentially “the gallows” for her support for Israel, though he also said he does not support the death penalty.

“Reichstag legislators were sentenced to the gallows at Nuremberg for similar legislative support for Nazi atrocities as Stevens gave to Zionist atrocities,” Sharon said. “Why should our legislators be treated differently if the investigation concludes they committed neo-Nazi atrocities?”

Sharon suggested that Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI), former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) should face similar investigation and potential punishment. He has said that former Vice President Kamala Harris, Slotkin and Peters are also neo-Nazis. 

Sharon has also previously declared that Zionism and Judaism are separate and incompatible  and declared that Attorney General Dana Nessel was not Jewish because of her support for Israel, was a neo-Nazi sympathizer and is “complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

And he denied that the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., and its attached preschool was antisemitic.

Sharon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did El-Sayed’s campaign.

Others who signed the letter have also expressed fringe views. Numerous signatories have accused Israel of genocide and have histories of anti-Israel advocacy, some of them being affiliated with JVP.

Several signatories have also been involved with Students for Justice in Palestine and campus anti-Israel advocacy, including serving as members or organizers of anti-Israel encampments on campuses. One was arrested for destruction of property when police cleared the encampment at the University of Michigan, though charges were later dropped.

At least 18 signatories on the letter signed onto a separate national statement demanding that institutions of higher education cut ties with mainstream Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League working to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

One signatory, a university professor, appeared to advocate for violence against “racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker[s]” on campuses, for which he was suspended without pay and referred to law enforcement.

Another signatory asserted that U.S. officials “had reasons to expect a terrorist attack would occur” on 9/11 “and were far more interested in exploiting than in preventing” such an attack. He separately described Israel as “overtly Jewish-supremacist.”

Yet another, a former public official, made racist comments at a public city council meeting, for which she later apologized and resigned.

One signatory, an encampment organizer at the University of Michigan, argued in support of calls for intifada and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” rejecting the notion that such slogans — which Jews say invoke campaigns of terrorism against Israel and the wholesale elimination of the Jewish state — are violent or antisemitic.

One was an organizer in the anti-Israel Uncommitted Movement in Michigan.

And one self-publishes a website where he has discussed his ties to a 1990s school shooting case, in which he was charged and detained as a co-conspirator for more than a month, though charges were later dropped. He denies any involvement or wrongdoing. He also discusses, on the website, his conviction and jailing for purchasing machine gun parts online in the early 2000s and constructing an illegal machine gun.