Vice President Mike Pence attended a campaign event in Michigan on Monday for Republican Senate candidate John James, GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette, and other conservatives on the ballot.
The rally near Grand Rapids, occurring just two days after a gunman murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in what is likely the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, opened with a prayer from Loren Jacobs, who ResistHere’s Rafael Shimunov noted is a “Christian Rabbi.”
In response to antisemitic white nationalist attack, Vice President Mike Pence opens campaign event with a Christian Rabbi. pic.twitter.com/5iMLx1V3NH
— Rafael Shimunov 🔥 (@rafaelshimunov) October 30, 2018
Jacobs is “actually a Christian who leads a group who calls themselves Messianic Jews,” per Eclectablog, which also notes he “spent eight years with the group Jews for Jesus.”
After briefly mentioning the mass murder of Jewish people in Pittsburgh, Jacobs then prayed for Michigan’s Republican candidates.
Then, rather than praying for the victims and survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack, Mike Pence's Christian Rabbi prays –by name– for each Republican candidate on a list given to him. pic.twitter.com/nZ5Vj6MQs8
— Rafael Shimunov 🔥 (@rafaelshimunov) October 30, 2018
Pence praised Jacobs as “a leader in the Jewish community” after the prayer.
The vice president’s staff later told Politico that Jacobs was invited by Republican congressional candidate Lena Epstein.
Team Pence says: "He was invited by Lena Epstein to offer a prayer at the event, which he did early in the program. The VP invited him back on stage to deliver a message of unity. He was not invited by the VP’s office to speak on behalf of the Jewish community.”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 30, 2018
The New Republic explained the supposed theology behind Jacobs’ beliefs.
A rabbi referring to Jesus as the Messiah is, of course, an unusual event but Jacobs is no ordinary rabbi. He is, in fact, a Christian. Shema Yisrael is a synagogue devoted to Messianic Judaism, which is to say, towards a faith that mixes Jewish cultural practices with a variation of Christian theology.
Daily Kos’ David Nir tweeted “Pence could not possibly have done something more offensive to Jews” on Monday.