On Tuesday, at a campaign event in Michigan, Vice President Mike Pence brought out Rabbi Loren Jacobs to lead the room in prayer for the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh.
The problem: Jacobs’ synagogue, Shema Yisrael, is a “Messianic” institution, and Jacobs belongs to a sect of Judaism that effectively proselytizes Christianity. This was evident in the prayer Jacobs used:
Rabbi Loren Jacobs of Messianic synagogue Shema Yisrael offers prayer before VP Pence speaks at Michigan campaign event: "God of Abraham … God and Father of my Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah…hate inspired shooting in synagogue in Pittsburgh"https://t.co/tRwFvBTjYE pic.twitter.com/u6JJCfdhgj
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 29, 2018
In choosing Jacobs, Pence managed to seriously offend many people. Soon, Twitter was full of angry reactions.
I don't know how strongly I can suggest how tone-deaf and offensive it is, today of all days, to have a Jews for Jesus leader at a campaign event instead of an actual Jewish rabbi. https://t.co/njtlfTbOr8
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin.bsky.social) (@adambonin) October 29, 2018
Holy shit. This is astonishing. Pence could not possibly have done something more offensive to Jews https://t.co/2xAXea1xDY
— David Nir on Bluesky: @davidnir.com (@DavidNir) October 29, 2018
Here's a little hint: If you think Jesus is the Messiah, you're not Jewish. You're part of that *other*, perfectly fine faith. But Jewish? No. https://t.co/rz0MnE63Eu
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) October 29, 2018
👀 HOLY SHIT.
Pence got someone from JEWS FOR JESUS to pretend to be a rabbi.Not only did @SchuetteOnDuty just lose the rest of the Jewish vote in Michigan, I’m pretty sure so did @LenaEpstein, @knollenberg and every other Bloomfield/West Bloomfield GOP candidate. https://t.co/be7zLffeGj
— Charles Gaba ✡️ (@charles_gaba) October 29, 2018
Pence has gotten into trouble with his depictions of the Jewish faith before. In January, during a tour of Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day, his tweet about how the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust “rose up from the ashes to resurrect themselves to reclaim a Jewish future” was roundly criticized for its overtly Christian imagery.
