Video surfaces of Hunter Biden reciting prayer for justice at Georgia synagogue
The president’s son attended the bar mitzvah ceremony of his nephew a day after the government expanded its criminal probe

Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, on Jan. 9. Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A video of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, reciting a prayer at a synagogue northwest of Atlanta earlier this month went viral over the weekend amid his criminal probe.
Hunter Biden was attending the bar mitzvah ceremony of his nephew, Jayden Cohen, the son of the brother of Melissa Cohen, Hunter’s Jewish wife, on Saturday Aug. 12 at Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, Georgia. Wearing a yarmulke and wrapped in a tallit, a prayer shawl, the political scion was invited to recite the traditional “Prayer for our Government,” a blessing which has been recited for centuries by diaspora Jewish communities.
The clip garnered attention due to its occurrence a day after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the assignment of a special counsel to conduct a more in-depth inquiry into Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activities.
“Hunter Biden pleads to God for justice,” was the New York Post’s headline on Saturday, pointing to the passage that asks God to guide the country’s leaders and judges to “understand the rules of justice” and to “grant us the knowledge to judge justly.”
The video, first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week and taken from a livestream of Shabbat morning services, did not appear on the synagogue’s Facebook page on Sunday.
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.
