"The day after an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence appeared at a campaign rally in Michigan with a rabbi who offered a sober opening prayer for the event. “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,” Loren Jacobs began, before lamenting the country’s divisions and praying for peace.
The appearance turned into a minor disaster. Pence introduced Jacobs as “a leader in the Jewish community,” but Jacobs is actually a “Christian rabbi”—that is, not a rabbi recognized by the Jewish faith. The Jewish community was not amused. “Stop pretending and appropriating my people,” one (Jewish) rabbi tweeted. Jacobs’ prayer mentioned “Jesus the Messiah,” and he petitioned God to grant Republican politicians victories in the midterm elections next week. It also turned out he had been defrocked 15 years ago."
Lena Epstein, the congressional candidate who hired a fake rabbi for a Pence event, angered a lot of Jewish voters.
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