Even Messianic Jews Don’t Want Mike Pence’s ‘Rabbi’ — Who Prayed To Jesus
Mike Pence Image by Getty Images
The Messianic “rabbi” who joined Vice President Mike Pence to pray for the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was reportedly defrocked 15 years ago by the organization that ordained him, NBC News reported.
Loren Jacobs, who called for prayers in the name of Jesus at a Republican campaign rally in Michigan on Monday, was dumped over a libel case.
“Loren Jacobs was stripped of his rabbinic ordination by the [Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations] in 2003, after our judicial board found him guilty of libel,” UMJC spokeswoman Monique Brumbach told NBC. It is unknown who Jacobs allegedly libeled.
Pence, who has identified as a born-again evangelical Christian and a passionate supporter of Israel, has been criticized for having Jacobs come onstage to “offer a word of prayer”, and invoke the name of Jesus Christ while delivering a prayer in memory of 11 Jewish victims, at the rally for Lena Epstein, a Republican running for Congress in Michigan’s 11th District. His spokesman reportedly insisted that Epstein, a longtime member of a Detroit–area synagogue, invited Jacobs to the rally.
Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the messiah and focus on seeking to convert Jews to join Jews for Jesus. Mainstream Jewish groups do not see them as legitimate Jews. Some retweeted stories about Pence’s rally with the hashtag #FakeJews, a play on Trump’s media bashing.
Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
