Motley crew of Jews establishes makeshift election-day war room out of Michigan law firm to help Mike Rogers

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan — As divisive as they’ve become in recent years, previous US elections have unfolded without impacting Shimon Levy’s relationships.

Today’s Senate race in Michigan between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers will be different for the 38-year-old Israeli-American, who says he won’t be able to look at some of his friends the same way.

El-Sayed has come under fire from some members of the local Jewish community for his intense criticism of Israel, but also for his response to a terror attack targeting a suburban Detroit synagogue in which he said: “Hurt people hurt people.” El-Sayed later apologized for the remark.

“We’re at a stage where I do not trust people who are Abdul voters. If they come knocking on my door for me, I know who will give me away,” Levy says.

He is sitting in a small conference room of a boutique law firm in Southfield, Michigan, that has been repurposed as an election war room by Levy and half a dozen other friends who are campaigning for Rogers.

“I’ve had tremendous hardship in communicating with people who are part of my life that have been blatantly supporting Abdul online. I have a hard time talking to them. What am I going to talk to them about? The weather? My kids?” Levy asks.

The small group assembled in the conference room does not fit the typical mold of campaign volunteers. They’re in their 30s and 40s with established careers — not retirees or college students. They also all supported Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary to defeat Rogers.

Levy argues that they’re now paying a steep price for their involvement.

“Do you think everybody becomes your friend once you put your opinion out there and start advocating?” he laments.

“I’m also losing time, business and money, but this is truly one of these cases where if you’re not going to do it, nobody else will,” Levy says.