Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, CEO of the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, is among more than 400 Michigan Jewish community members who signed a petition pledging to vote for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

The petition, titled "Michigan Jews Against Extremism," was circulating before El-Sayed's Aug. 29 apology for earlier comments about the Temple Israel terrorist attack and gained signatures afterward. It surfaced publicly as Vice President JD Vance visited metro Detroit on Monday, Aug. 31, to meet with leaders of the West Bloomfield synagogue, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported via the Detroit Jewish News.

Vance met with a rabbi and a security officer who stopped the assailant during the March 12 attack. The meeting was held at Vance's request and did not take place at the synagogue, according to Rabbi Jen Lader of Temple Israel. Lader said the meeting was an opportunity to push for antisemitism protections and security funding through the Jewish American Security Act. She added that Temple Israel has made the same requests to officials in both parties.

That bill, introduced in the U.S. House by Reps. Dan Goldman and Mike Lawler, would increase Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to $1 billion.

Temple Israel, the largest synagogue in Michigan, has been undergoing a $10 million rebuild since the March 12 attack. That day, Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon, rammed a pickup truck into the building while more than 100 children attended school inside, CNN reported. The FBI classified the attack as "a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism." No one other than the attacker was killed, though a lead security officer was injured.

The petition's language states that "many" of the signatories "have been fiercely supportive of Democratic candidates and principles" but that all "declare our intent to vote for Mike Rogers for US Senate in 2026." It specifies that their vote "does not require that we agree with him on every issue or that we support President Trump."

Signatories also include Brian Hermelin, president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit; Mark Davidoff, CEO of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator; and Amy Newman, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Metro Detroit. The petition listed names without titles, suggesting signatories signed as individuals.

El-Sayed had included the phrase "Hurt people hurt people" in a statement about the Temple Israel attack, which he described as providing "context" about Israel's war in Lebanon. He apologized at the state Democratic Party's Jewish caucus on Saturday, Aug. 29, saying "I made a mistake."

Benji Rosenzweig, a West Bloomfield real-estate agent and music podcaster who describes himself as a "centrist" with "liberal values," signed the petition. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was not persuaded by El-Sayed's apology: "What he said was, 'I'm sorry that you were hurt.' That's not an apology."

The El-Sayed campaign did not return a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Michigan is home to an estimated 100,000 Jewish residents. The general election is Nov. 3.