Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Arizona Rabbi Kicked Out of Council Meeting After Balking at ‘Savior’ Jesus Prayer

A rabbi was removed from a city council meeting in Arizona after protesting a Christian invocation read by the mayor.

Two police officers escorted Rabbi Adele Plotkin out of the Feb. 9 Chino Valley Town Council meeting at the request of Mayor Chris Marley, who ended his prayer “in the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” the Daily Courier reported.

Marley is a minister and six of the seven council members in Chino Valley, in northern Arizona, have identified themselves as Christians, while one is identified a non-Christian. Under council regulations, a council member may give the invocation but is not required. The council member identified as non-Christian has declined to give an invocation, according to the newspaper.

At the meeting last week, the council voted to make no changes to the invocation tradition.

Marley reportedly had announced at the Jan. 26 council meeting that there would be no invocations at meetings until the council had discussed the current system following a complaint from a different rabbi. Plotkin, of the Beit Torah congregation, told the Daily Courier that she attended the meeting based on that announcement.

Explaining her protest, Plotkin told the newspaper, “Sitting there is giving the impression of acquiescence, so what was I to do?”

The mayor argued at the meeting that ending the invocations would harm the council members’ right to freely worship as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

The rabbi said she has been in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union about the invocations.

Jake Bennett, the Anti-Defamation League’s Arizona regional director, said in a statement: “We believe it is inappropriate and insensitive for a mayor or town council member elected to represent all of the people in his community to offer a sectarian invocation at a public town council meeting. When a civic leader prays in Jesus’ name in such a setting, the message inevitably conveyed to non-Christians is one of exclusion.”

Bennett added that Plotkin acted “inappropriately” in disrupting the council meeting and the mayor was “within his rights” to have her removed.

“But there is a larger point to be made here,” the statement concluded. “This incident graphically illustrates how divisive sectarian prayer practices before local legislative bodies can be in our pluralistic society, and why they are ill-advised.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.