Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, apologized to a group of Jewish Democrats on Saturday for a statement he made in March about an attack on a synagogue near Detroit, saying that “nobody deserves to have their pain trampled on.”
Dr. El-Sayed, who is trying to appeal to Jewish Democrats who have expressed deep skepticism about his candidacy, said he should not have included a phrase — “hurt people hurt people” — in a video statement he issued soon after a man drove his truck into the synagogue, injuring a guard. The authorities said the attack, on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., was a targeted act against Jews.
“I made a mistake,” said Dr. El-Sayed, responding to a question while addressing the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at a party convention in Lansing. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.”
The latest comments came at a tense moment for Dr. El-Sayed, whose race could decide control of the Senate. He has been under pressure from Jewish Democrats to condemn Hasan Piker, a streamer who has made incendiary comments about Israel and campaigned with Dr. El-Sayed during the primary race.
Even as Dr. El-Sayed offered his apology on Saturday, he declined to disavow Mr. Piker, who has faced forceful criticism from other prominent Democratic elected officials and become a flashpoint in the party’s broader debate about Israel. Dr. El-Sayed’s apology was welcomed by Jewish Democrats at the convention, but many continued to express concern about his connections to Mr. Piker.
Speaking to the Jewish Caucus, Dr. El-Sayed said he had been trying in his March statement to “offer broader context.” But he added that he had inadvertently trampled on “the dignity that that fear and that pain should have been afforded.”
“If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry,” Dr. El-Sayed said. “That was not what I intended.”
The authorities said the man who carried out the attack on the synagogue, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Lebanon, had lost family in an Israeli attack in March. In his initial statement, Dr. El-Sayed said there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people” but that he understood that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.”
On Saturday, Dr. El-Sayed said his attempts to contextualize the attack were inappropriate in its immediate aftermath.
The apology came as Dr. El-Sayed’s links to Mr. Piker have faced growing scrutiny, after Mr. Piker issued an ominous warning this month that Jewish Americans could face threats because of their positions on Israel.
The comment set off days of infighting by Democrats across the country over how their party should approach Mr. Piker, whose huge, young following has made him an appealing ally for progressive Democrats.
Mr. Piker attended Dr. El-Sayed’s primary night party and joined him at several earlier campaign events. But Dr. El-Sayed recently said he had no intention to campaign with Mr. Piker again in the lead up to the November general election.
Dr. El-Sayed, speaking with reporters at the convention, dismissed questions about Mr. Piker, who lives in Southern California.
“This is about affordability in Michigan,” Dr. El-Sayed said of his campaign. He added, “I am not interested in a conversation about a social-media person in California.”
Dr. El-Sayed is running against former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican. Polls show a competitive race.
Mr. Rogers, who has been trying to peel off disaffected Democrats, said in a statement that Dr. El-Sayed was “trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed.”
“It’s too little, too late, Abdul,” Mr. Rogers added. “Michiganders see you for exactly who you are.”
When Dr. El-Sayed narrowly won the Democratic primary in early August, many Jewish Democrats declined to immediately back him, citing both his links to Mr. Piker and his criticism of Israel. Dr. El-Sayed has called the country’s government “evil.”
Dr. El-Sayed defeated Representative Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel Democrat, to win his party’s nomination. The Democratic Party in Michigan, which has large Jewish and Muslim populations, has been split by debates about Israel.
The convention where Dr. El-Sayed delivered his apology was itself a source of tension. The state attorney general, Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, said she did not feel safe at the event after Ms. Stevens was booed by party activists unhappy with her support for Israel at a different convention in the spring.
In an essay Ms. Stevens published online Saturday, she recalled that some at the spring convention, which drew an activist crowd, showered her with jeers of “Zionist pig.” Ms. Stevens, who was endorsed by the Jewish Caucus in the primary, wrote that Dr. El-Sayed had reached out to her after the spring convention and told her that the response she had received was “wrong.”
The event on Saturday was a calmer affair, and attendees were given badges displaying the word “Unity.” Speakers kept their focus on economic issues. But it was clear that some Jewish Democrats were not ready to embrace their Senate nominee.
State Representative Noah Arbit, a Democrat from West Bloomfield Township who founded his state party’s Jewish caucus, said Friday in a text message that Dr. El-Sayed should completely “sever ties” with Mr. Piker, describing the streamer as “an illustration of the candidate’s accommodation of unabashedly extremist, authoritarian politics within his coalition.”
Jessica Alexander, chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, said in an interview at the convention that she was deeply engaged with the El-Sayed campaign. The campaign, she said, knows “there’s work to do” with the Jewish community. She said that she remained concerned about Mr. Piker but that she did not have concerns about Dr. El-Sayed as a candidate. Many in the caucus remain anxious about his candidacy, though, she said after his apology.
David Hecker, who asked Dr. El-Sayed the question that prompted the apology on Saturday, said that he still wanted him to condemn Mr. Piker. Mr. Hecker said Dr. El-Sayed had previously apologized to him in private about the March statement and that he was glad to hear Dr. El-Sayed deliver the message to a larger audience. But Mr. Hecker said he understood that Dr. El-Sayed would lose support from some Michigan voters if he disavowed the popular streamer.
“What he tried to do was walk the line,” Mr. Hecker said, adding that he wanted Dr. El-Sayed to win but that he thought it was “disgusting that some of the people who are going to vote for him actually like Piker.”
Mr. Piker did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
He said on his show a week ago that “if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action — not against the State of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.” (He has since said he was not calling for violence against Jews.)
The comment came moments before Mr. Piker assailed Jeremy Moss, a Democratic nominee for the House in Michigan, for declining to endorse Dr. El-Sayed since the primary.
Mr. Moss is Jewish and has said he is concerned about Dr. El-Sayed’s position on Israel. Mr. Moss said at the convention that Dr. El-Sayed’s apology for the March statement was “genuine,” “credible” and “appreciated” by the caucus.
“We’ve had many meaningful and thoughtful conversations since the primary,” Mr. Moss said. “This was something that got brought up.”
In a statement on Monday responding to Mr. Piker’s remarks, Dr. El-Sayed said that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople” and that “all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence.”
A drumbeat of Democratic statements denouncing Mr. Piker followed the streamer’s comment.
Dr. El-Sayed tried to move past the issue, hitting the campaign trail this week with Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, who is Jewish, and Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat.
Mr. Raskin downplayed his party’s divides. Ms. Dingell said she did not “agree with Hasan Piker on a lot of stuff” but implored Democrats not to focus on him.
“Don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker; it’s not what November is about,” Ms. Dingell said, raising Mr. Piker without prompting in a speech. Republicans, she added, are “trying to divide us.”
Bayliss Wagner contributed reporting.
