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Michigan Jewish Candidate Under Fire for Inviting Messianic Rabbi to Pray for Pittsburgh

[additional-authors]
October 30, 2018
Mich. Republican U.S. House candidate Lena Epstein and Vice President Mike Pence. Photo from Twitter.

Vice President Mike Pence and Mich. Republican U.S. House candidate Lena Epstein received backlash Monday night after Epstein invited Messianic Rabbi Loren Jacobs, of Shema Yisrael to offer prayer for the Pittsburgh synagogue.

Epstein, who is Jewish, is running for the 11th congressional district, an area just northwest of Detroit.

Pence welcomed Jacobs onstage saying, “I’m privileged to be joined today by a leader in the Jewish Community here in Michigan who’s kind enough to join us today.”

In an article that ran Tuesday morning, The Forward reported that “Pence is an evangelical Christian who maintains close ties to so-called Messianic Jews.”

Messianic Jews, who consider Jesus to be the Messiah, are not considered to be Jewish by Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jewish denominations.

The Shema Yisrael website states the following:

“In one sense, Messianic Judaism and Christianity are the same thing. There is only one faith. Messianic Jews and Christians share the same core beliefs. Messianic Judaism is the same faith but it is expressed within the Jewish heritage.”

According to The New Republic, Jacobs told the crowd, “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and Father of my Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and my God and Father too.”

“A rabbi is a Jewish spiritual leader and Messianic Judaism or Jews for Jesus are not part of Judaism, it is a Christian denomination, therefore, they are Christian,” Rabbi Jason Miller, founder and director of Kosher Michigan told the Journal. “The issue is not that a non-Jewish leader was asked to give a prayer. There’s nothing wrong with leaders of other faiths giving memorial prayers you see this all the time.”

“For Lena Epstein, who is a Jewish woman, to choose a Messianic leader to be called up as a rabbi and to be the only prayer leader to offer memorial prayers for the 11 Jewish souls who were murdered in Pittsburgh, is short-sighted and offensive to the Jewish community,” the Metro-Detroit rabbi added.

Many took to Twitter Monday night following the speech wondering why Epstein didn’t ask one of the various Michigan rabbis to speak. According to a listing from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, there are at least 30 synagogues and temples in the Metro-Detroit area, all with at least one full-time rabbi.

Jacobs is based in the Metro-Detroit community.

According to Miller there are 60 rabbis who appear in a directory of the Michigan Board of Rabbis.

Epstein, who invited the rabbi to the event, defended her choice on Twitter Tuesday morning saying, “My family’s history as Jews and my commitment to my Jewish faith are beyond question…I invited the prayer because we must unite as a nation – while embracing our religious differences- in the aftermath of Pennsylvania. Any media or political competitor who is attacking me or the Vice President is guilty of nothing short of religious intolerance and should be ashamed.”

In 2016, Epstein co-chaired President Donald Trump’s campaign in Michigan.

“I know Lena Epstein and I know she is a proud member of the Jewish community,” Miller said. “However, aligning herself with the Trump Administration, and with the hateful people who are included in that administration, raises questions. And the fact that she knowingly invited a messianic rabbi to give a message of unity at a memorial for the souls lost in Pittsburgh is offensive to her community.”

The seat Epstein is running for is currently held by Republican Rep. Dave Trott. Epstein is running against Democrat Haley Stevens.

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