Trump’s antisemitism czar visits Michigan synagogue ahead of contentious US midterms

DETROIT (JTA) – The Trump administration’s antisemitism czar spoke to a Michigan synagogue on Wednesday for a US Justice Department event that also doubled as a fundraiser for the state’s chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.

Leo Terrell, who chairs the administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, attended on behalf of the department. The Justice Department touted the event on its website with a link to a ZOA registration page that solicited donations to become an event co-sponsor.

Federal ethics regulations restrict fundraising by government employees and prohibit the use of government property for unauthorized purposes, though they allow authorized official fundraising and certain official speeches at fundraising events.

Terrell visited Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, a Detroit suburb; the synagogue was also listed as a co-sponsor. Other co-sponsors included a local Jewish high school, Mothers Against College Antisemitism and pro-Israel advocacy groups.

It came weeks before the US midterm elections, in which rhetoric on Israel and Jewish safety from the state’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has put local Jews on edge.

The Justice Department billed the event as the first stop on Terrell’s “American Tour Against Hate,” adding, “All faiths and backgrounds welcome.” Terrell held a conversation with Mort Klein, national head of ZOA, a usual stalwart Trump supporter who has broken with the president at times on Iran policy.

On its registration page for the event, ZOA Michigan noted that it “brings the Department of Justice directly into dialogue with Michigan’s Jewish community.”

ZOA Michigan also alluded to current tensions between the state’s Jewish community and El-Sayed.

“Antisemitism is reaching across Michigan — in schools, in public spaces, and among political candidates,” the event page read. “Confronting it requires our community to stand together.”

The ZOA is a hawkish pro-Israel organization that backs the West Bank settlement movement and Israeli right-wing government policies. In the US, it has also endorsed some of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies.

Federal tax law prohibits tax-exempt houses of worship from supporting or opposing political candidates, but Trump has sought to loosen the restrictions.

Rabbi Aaron Starr, of Shaarey Zedek, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Conservative congregation’s co-sponsoring of the event should not imply that it was endorsing one candidate over another.

“We are looking forward to working with anybody and everybody who wants to combat hate, whether that hate is antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, racism or any other form of hate,” Starr said. He added that the congregation would soon welcome Jewish Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin for a veteran’s Shabbat.

Starr said the synagogue became a sponsor because it had been approached by ZOA to serve as an event host. “We’re mostly just serving as a venue for the event,” he said, adding that he personally would not be there.

Terrell did not return a JTA request for comment on the event. But he promoted it extensively on social media and had hinted at the talk, and the ZOA partnership, in a previous email he sent to JTA reporters.

“We hope to see everyone there making it clear hate has no place in America a.k.a the greatest country on Earth,” he wrote at the time. He also thanked ZOA Michigan “for their tireless work on bringing our powerful message into reality.”

ZOA Michigan’s executive director, Kobi Erez, told JTA the event was nonpartisan, but added that he was aware of voters planning to switch parties — an allusion to Democrats who are considering voting for Rogers.

“We are not planning to discuss particular candidates or tell anyone how to vote,” Erez said in an email.

“We do encourage people to examine candidates’ records and statements concerning the safety of the Jewish community and consider whether they will take antisemitism seriously,” he said. “We feel that Jewish safety is at stake now more than ever. We know people who, because of these concerns, plan to vote for a party they have never supported before, and we understand their position.”

Erez said that the point of the event was not fundraising. “We are accepting voluntary sponsorships and donations to help cover expenses and support our work, but the purpose of this evening is to confront antisemitism and connect the community with the Department of Justice,” he said.

Frankel Jewish Academy, a private Jewish high school in the Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield Township, was also listed as a co-sponsor of the Terrell event. Frankel leaders did not return a JTA request for comment.

Terrell, an attorney, former O.J. Simpson supporter and ex-Fox News contributor, is a senior counsel in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. In that role, he oversees antisemitism task forces that include staffers from the departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services.

Terrell’s visit came as Trump, and Republicans more broadly, see an opening for Michigan in the midterms, in part via the Jewish vote. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance will be campaigning in Michigan in the coming days. During Vance’s previous stop in Michigan, he went after El-Sayed for his reaction to the Temple Israel attack earlier this year.

Hundreds of local Jews have signed a petition pledging to vote for El-Sayed’s GOP opponent, former US Rep. Mike Rogers, over their fears of the Democrat’s “extremism” on Jews and Israel, including El-Sayed’s remarks earlier this year about the attack on Temple Israel in the state. He has since apologized for those comments.

A separate petition — spearheaded by Starr and other rabbis — outlines “non-negotiables” that some Jewish leaders have pushed El-Sayed and other candidates to agree to.