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Vice President Pence, on the right, prays with Rabbi Loren Jacobs, of the Bloomfield Hills congregation, Shema Yisrael, for the victims and families of those killed in the Pittsburgh Synagogue, at a rally of Republicans in Oakland County on Monday, October 29, 2018 (Tanya Moutzalias / Ann Arbor News-MLive.com via AP)
Two days after the deadliest attack on Jews in US history, Vice President Pence lowered his head at a rally in Michigan on Monday as the religious leader passes his for a "rabbi" prayed for the victims in Pittsburgh.
But the man who shared a scene with Pence, Loren Jacobs, preaches Messianic Judaism, an essential tradition of the Jews for Jesus, a group condemned by Jewish leaders as a form of Christian evangelism. The great Jewish denominations join with the state of Israel to consider the followers of Messianic Judaism as Christians and not Jews.
His appearance has provoked the outrage of social media. Jason A. Miller, a rabbi from the Detroit area, wrote on Facebook that more than 60 rabbis appeared in a Michigan Board of Rabbis directory – "And yet, the only possible rabbi to offer a prayer to the 11 Jewish victims in Pittsburgh at Mike Pence's rally was a local Jew for Jesus rabbi ? "
Jacobs is the "chief rabbi" and founder of "Congregation Shema Yisrael," a religious organization based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in the northern suburbs of Detroit, which describes itself as a "messianic synagogue." In a video on the congregation's website – titled "Hide" because it aims to demonstrate that Jesus' respect is in accordance with Jewish law – Jacobs explained that he had grown up in a Jewish family from the Chicago area, but felt that Judaism "was spiritually missing something".
"The truth is that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and that he can realize us and compete with us in our Jewish identity," he said, describing how he was attracted to the figure of Jesus while reading philosophy texts at the university.
Appearing with Vice President Monday, Mr. Jacobs invoked "Jesus the Messiah" and "Savior Yeshua" – another name for Jesus – while praying in Pittsburgh for the dead and wounded. "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 also," he said.
Although the synagogue run by Jacobs does not appear to be Jewish for Jesus, it promotes the events of the organization and shares its essential creeds, such as the future millennial kingdom under Jesus, centered in Jerusalem. A group, Jews for Judaism, was founded in 1985 to fight the Jews for Jesus. This group was formed more than ten years earlier and reports that it derives the bulk of its individual donation funds and devotes most of its money to "Evangelism and other activities. . "
Alyssa Farah, press secretary for the vice president, could not be contacted Monday for a comment. A Pence assistant told The Associated Press that Jacobs had been invited by Lena Epstein, Republican congressional candidate, and said that Pence did not know who the religious leader was when he had brought on stage at the rally.
Epstein, in a statement posted on Twitter, said that his Jewish faith was "indisputable" and accused "any media or political contender who mend or attack the vice president" of "religious intolerance" . She said she is a member of Temple Beth El, a reformed synagogue in Bloomfield Hills, but has not yet explained why she invited the head of the messianic synagogue to the campaign event.
"I am proud of my faith and look forward to being the only Jewish Republican woman in Congress," she concluded.
The rabbi's remarks, however, were not limited to the theme of religious solidarity. In addition to condemning the "hate-inspired shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue" and asking God to "comfort all those who cry," Jacobs called on the Almighty to favor the Republican Party in the mid-term elections. next month.
He did not name the victims of the Pittsburgh massacre, but named four Republican candidates, including Epstein. "I pray for them and for the Republican Party and its candidates that they honor you, as well as your ways, so that you grant them victory in this election," he said. ;step.
Adepts of Messianic Judaism will date their movement from the time of Jesus, while most scholars treat the religious tradition as a creature of America in the twentieth century. "Messianic Judaism is a Protestant movement that emerged in the last half of the twentieth century among believers of Jewish ethnicity, but who had adopted an evangelical Christian faith," said J. Gordon Melton, professor of # 39; religious history at Baylor University.
The Jews do not see Jesus as the Messiah and, in fact, the Jewish law proscribes as idolatry the worship of a person, which goes against the central Jewish principle that God is singular and absolute . Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, wrote in an essay published in 1988 that supporters of Messianic Judaism, among whom the famous Jew of Jesus, "exploit the weakness, l & # 39; Ignorance and misery.
"But I feel less disgust for Christian missionaries than for their Jewish accomplices," he added. "The missionaries are at least honest, they openly proclaim that their goal is to absorb as many Jews as possible in their church." Judaisity of the victims by assimilating them. "
In 1989, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the application for citizenship of a Jewish messianic couple, believing that the belief in Jesus made the applicants Christian, and therefore ineligible for automatic citizenship. Nevertheless, there remain unanswered questions about eligibility, based on Jewish ancestors. Aaron J. Hahn Tapper, professor of Jewish studies at the University of San Francisco and author of "Most Israeli Jews disagree with the court's decision, arguing that believing in Jesus as Messiah is not incompatible with being a Jew. " Judaism: an introduction to Jews and Jewish identities in the 21st century ". About one-third of Jewish Americans also see the two as reconcilable.
In a doctrinal statement on his synagogue's website, Jacobs claimed that Jews who place their faith in Jesus "continue to be Jewish according to the Scriptures". He then explained his vision of Messianic Judaism, emphasizing the importance of "bringing to others."
"I want to see Messianic Jews play more of a leadership role in the Christian Church," he wrote. "I want to see ourselves engaged in world evangelism, fulfilling our vocation of being a kingdom of priests and a light for the nations. I especially wish to see our synagogues engaged in a daring evangelization within our people (including in partnership with Jewish mission organizations). "
Others believe that Jewish messianism is unjustly aligned with Christian proselytism, which claims to defend Israel's interests. "Supporting Israel" while actively seeking to convert the Jews, is, in the eyes of the Jews, coupled a caress with a stab in the back, "wrote Gershom Gorenberg, journalist and Israeli historian of origin American, "The End Times: Fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount. He asserted that it was impossible to remain Jewish while accepting the precepts of Christianity, and he warned against the appropriation of the Jews by the Christian right.
"We are just actors in their dreams," he told Vanity Fair in 2005.
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