LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Citing antisemitic incidents and attacks against Jewish communities, the Michigan House has designated October 2026 as Combating Antisemitism Month.
State Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, who is Jewish, sponsored House Resolution 361, which was adopted Sept. 23. It describes antisemitism as including “the singular denial of Jewish self-determination,” along with discrimination, harassment, vandalism, violence and distortion of Jewish history and the Holocaust.
“The World’s Oldest Hatred”
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Speaking on the House floor, Arbit called antisemitism the “world’s oldest hatred.”
“I’m a Zionist. I have been all my life,” he said. “Now I am told by people I once considered friends and ideological allies that my Zionism, embracing my heritage, my faith, my history, makes me a traitor to human rights, a traitor to progressivism, to liberalism.”
The resolution highlights the March 12, 2026, terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. An attacker rammed his vehicle into the synagogue and opened fire while more than 100 children and more than 30 teachers and staff members were inside its early childhood center.
The FBI determined that the attack was a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. The attacker died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during an exchange of gunfire with security personnel.
The resolution also cites the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023; the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018; and the Yom Kippur War, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria on Oct. 6, 1973.
Jewish Democrats Split Over El-Sayed
Arbit, founder of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, was among 17 Jewish Democratic elected officials, party leaders and activists who joined the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign on Sept. 29. The campaign has asked Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to affirm commitments concerning Jewish safety, self-determination, sovereignty in Israel and participation in American political life.
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Other Jewish Democrats have backed El-Sayed, including Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who endorsed him Sept. 22 despite previously expressing concerns about his positions on Israel and antisemitism.
Nessel had announced that she would skip the party’s August convention, citing harassment and safety concerns related to antisemitism.
At an Aug. 30 gathering of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish Caucus in Birmingham, before endorsing El-Sayed, Nessel urged attendees to consider broader concerns.
“We have a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival,” Nessel said.
