09/01/2026
THE SHARING OF DANA NESSEL’S REMARKS AT OUR SUMMER SIMCHA
August 31, 2026
One of the highlights of the many highlights of this year’s record breaking, standing-room only Summer Simcha (our annual fund and friendraiser for the Caucus) was our honoree AG Dana Nessel’s closing event remarks.
The remarks, available here, give us a brief history lesson of how Jews arrived in the Democratic party and why the majority of us still find it our political home, despite the very real anti-semitism swimming through some aspects of the party and its people.
But really the remarks are an elegy for this time. As Jews and Americans, the caucus has heard from hundreds if not thousands of people who are uncertain what to do, how to vote, what to believe, what to prioritize and how to feel. Jewish Americans are standing at a precipice.
For many, the dilemma is stark: Do we support candidates whose public statements and prospective policies regarding the state of Israel challenge its very existence and security, or do we look elsewhere toward platforms and values that are fundamentally antithetical to our core way of being and our vision for a pluralistic society?
And, Dana, in all her wisdom, strength and resolve took this moment in the tradition of our ancestors, to pose that very question –
“Do we vote for an individual who believes in a Jewish state? Or do we vote for someone whose policies and platforms (e.g. AI, climate change, another global pandemic) are a threat to all of humanity?”
The essence of her remarks, for those who choose to listen, is that she gives us a question for us to: examine, unpack and incubate.
What more can we ask of a leader, and of this time.
So, examine, unpack, incubate and listen.
-Jessica 'Decky' Alexander, Chair
https://youtu.be/RZPzlJqaVck
