A political moment in Michigan exposes the myth that Jews care about only one issue — and why that myth threatens our community more than any candidate ever could.

A stubborn myth in American politics refuses to die that Jews vote on one issue and one issue alone. It is repeated by pundits, weaponized by activists, and assumed by people who have never bothered to ask a single Jewish voter what matters to them. According to this myth, our ballots rise and fall only on Israel — as if millions of Jews across America wake up on Election Day thinking about nothing else.

This myth is not just wrong. It is insulting. It reduces a 3,000‑year‑old moral tradition to a single talking point. It flattens a diverse community into a caricature. And it allows outsiders to claim they understand Jewish priorities better than Jews themselves.

Michigan’s political moment — with early results showing Abdul El‑Sayed leading in the Democratic Senate primary, though results were not yet officially certified — has exposed just how quickly people try to shove Jews back into that narrow box. The conversation in Jewish circles has been intense, emotional, and at times painful. But if we let others define us by one issue, we hand them the power to decide what our values are. And that is something Jews have never done.

Jewish tradition teaches a wide lens, not a narrow one. Our sages never told us to care about one issue. They told us: do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor. Justice, justice, shall you pursue. All Israel is responsible for one another. These........

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