JTA — Retired US Rep. Sander Levin, a decades-long mainstay of Michigan Jewish Democratic politics, endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for Senate on Tuesday night despite what he called “significant disagreement” on Israel.

Levin, 95, called for “all Michiganders of conscience” to vote for El-Sayed amid fierce divisions among Michigan’s Jewish voters and Democratic leaders on whether to back the Democratic nominee. Jewish voters have objected to El-Sayed’s reluctance to back a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, among other issues.

The state’s two Democratic senators, including Jewish moderate Elissa Slotkin, are also calling on their colleagues to help El-Sayed, according to a report in Semafor. The other senator is Gary Peters, who is retiring. El-Sayed is running to succeed him.

El-Sayed’s nomination has roiled Jewish Democrats in the state. Some, including   Congressional candidate Jeremy Moss, have held off on endorsing him. Others have said that while Jewish misgivings about El-Sayed are well founded, the threat of an unchecked US President Donald Trump is greater and Jewish voters should put their own worries aside to vote for him — a recommendation Attorney General Dana Nessel made at a recent Jewish gathering.

Michigan is seen as a must-win for Democrats in their hopes of seizing control of the Senate from Republicans and instituting checks on Trump.

Much of the Jewish concern about El-Sayed’s candidacy has to do with his past association with left-wing anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker. El-Sayed appeared Tuesday night in a scheduled debate on local TV at which his GOP opponent, Mike Rogers, did not attend, saying he never agreed to it. Once again, El-Sayed denounced Piker’s recent remarks suggesting that pro-Israel advocacy made American Jews targets for violence.

Levin, a member of a powerful political family in the state, served in Congress in a district representing a heavily Jewish suburban Detroit community from 1983 to........

© The Times of Israel