Posted on 10/30/2018 8:25:03 AM PDT by Dahoser
Two days after the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, Vice President Pence bowed his head at a rally on Monday in Michigan as a religious leader who casts himself as a “rabbi” offered a prayer for the victims in Pittsburgh.
But the man who shared a stage with Pence, Loren Jacobs, preaches Messianic Judaism, a tradition central to Jews for Jesus, a group condemned by Jewish leaders as faux Judaism that seeks to promote Christian evangelism. The major Jewish denominations join the state of Israel in viewing followers of Messianic Judaism as Christian, not Jewish.
His appearance drew outrage on social media. Jason A. Miller, a Detroit-area rabbi, wrote on Facebook that more than 60 rabbis appeared in a directory of the Michigan Board of Rabbis — “and yet the only rabbi they could find to offer a prayer for the 11 Jewish victims in Pittsburgh at the Mike Pence Rally was a local Jew for Jesus rabbi?”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
From https://rabbijason.com/publications/articles/jewish-yarmulke-muslim-kufi/
One Missing Yarmulke, Several New Friends
Rabbi Jason MillerWe tend to see the differences that separate us from other religious groups rather than the commonalities. That sounds so cliché, but it’s true.
When some Jews hear of an Islamic religious school, called a madrassa, they make assumptions about what might be taught there. They don’t take the time to even consider that the Arabic word madrassa is very closely related to the Hebrew word midrasha, a Jewish religious school.
And when some Jews see a Muslim man wearing a skullcap called a kufi, they make assumptions about his religious views, political sentiments, and opinions on a range of social issues. They tend to forget how similar the kufi is to our kippah, or yarmulke.
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She seemed confused by my request, but explained they had no store in the building and didn’t sell kufis. But just as I was about to head back to my rental car, the woman found another woman and shared my story. She told me to wait a moment and about five minutes later she returned with a large, black knitted kufi for me. I asked her how much it would cost and she insisted that it was free. I took out a ten-dollar bill and handed it to her as a donation. The idea that I had just made my first charitable gift to an Islamic school was not lost on me. With some trepidation I placed the kufi on my head and thanked the kind women as I left.Just as I got back in the car and took a look at myself in the rear-view mirror my phone rang. It was my wife telling me that there was an Orthodox synagogue in Peoria. I told her I was wearing a Muslim kufi on my head and shared my story of the welcoming women at the madrassa.
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While I wore the borrowed yarmulke to the visit at the spice factory, I still felt appreciative to the generous women at the madrassa who provided me with the kufi. It is a story I will continue to tell with pleasure. Losing a yarmulke led me on an adventure to a mosque, a madrassa and a neighborhood park where I met a new rabbinic colleague.I keep that black kufi on the desk of my office and every once in a while I smile as I consider the similarities between Jews and Muslims. Perhaps, my kufi will serve as a reminder to others to seek out the connections with members of other religions and to explore what we share in common rather than what divides us.
Honoring Pittsburgh synagogue victims, Pence appears with ‘rabbi’ who preaches, ‘Jesus
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I wonder what the Compost thinks about Left-wing Jewish Rabbis who don’t preach Judaism either?
...probably don’t mind that very much.
Great points; you skewered the fake phony fraud Rabbi.
Yeah, we’re getting publicity.
All the fake phony Rabbis who don’t repent will shrink away from THE Rabbi on Judgement day.
One would think that the coming together of all faith communities would be welcome at a time like this. At least, that’s what the thinking would be in my church. We shared space for a time with a Messianic congregation and found them to be a welcoming bunch,always willing to share their faith experiences with us.
This.
If the event was supposed to be welcoming to the greater Jewish community— then bringing a messianic (ie, evangelical Christian with Jewish wardrobe) was a mistake.
Get it? “Come Jews!... And hear an evangelical message.”
It was a campaign rally, not a religious event. The local Congressional candidate, Lena Epstein, invited the rabbi to the rally to lead the prayer.
This Lena Epstein has shown herself to be incompetent and insensitive in probably handing off the task of finding a “rabbi” to a non-Jewish or reform Jew staff member. Of all the poor choices to be made, she really topped it. First the gunman takes Jewish lives physically; then this Messyonic fake cult member posing as a rabbi attempts to use this tragedy as a platform to steal Jewish souls for his cult. Hard to say which is the worse sin. I think Pence simply is not well versed enough to have known the difference, but it’s still a disgrace that they shared a pulpit.
I think it’s fair since the synagogue that was attacked was celebrating some kind of a gay circumcision ceremony. I doubt any Rabbi coming from them would have been capable of behaving civilly at a unity event.
Why? who is this loser rabbi? there can be different flavors of Jewishness, including encouraging association with mohammadens, as long as one of the flavors doesn’t acknowledge Christianity? What a loony toon.
It wasn’t a Mike Pence rally, it was a local candidate rally. Mike Pence just attended it.
The candidate invited a local religious leader for prayer, as most candidates do for every rally.
The shooting happened recently, so the invited religious leader, during prayer, offered prayers for the victims, as probably did most every religious leader in the country on Sunday (probably not muslim religious leaders, but I digress).
Mike Pence “bowed” for the prayer. Imagine if he had NOT. I don’t even know if Pence knew who the religious leader was, but of course he was going to bow for a prayer.
In fact, if it had been an conservative Rabbi, the guy probably would have complained, and if it was a liberal Rabbi, the guy probably would have faulted Pence for PRETENDING to pray with a person of a different belief than him.
And, in the crowning acheivement, this guy actually makes it “bad” for a Messianic Jewish leader (a recognized religious group) to be praying for jewish victims, as if they are somehow disqualified.
Given that the candidate (need I even look up if she’s a RINO— I guess doesn’t matter this cycle) brought it on herself, I don’t disagree with any of your comments.
EINNYC— the disgrace is on her in this case.
GPH— What do you mean “I think it’s fair?” That the crown heard an evangelical message? (as opposed to a Jewish orthodox/conservative/reform/non-New-Testament message?)
Actually, there is no indication that the rabbi did ANYTHING except offer the opening invocation/prayer, at which time they offered prayers for the victims of the shooting.
I imagine that a bunch of candidates had various religious leaders at rallies this week, and they all offered prayers for the victims, and probably only a few were jewish.
Then we have further clarity and agreement. Fake “rabbi” can say whatever he wants in Jesus’ name at the even to which he was invited by not-yet-Torah-observant Jewish candidate.
If she could not pick a real rabbi to get through a message in the name of the One Almighty indivisible G-d.... it’s on her.
Aren’t Christian Jews still Jewish? I don’t see how getting some gay rabbi from that city would have been better. I think most of them are condemning Trump at the moment. You should look past the religion and respect the call for unity.
On the Saturday night news in SF, they showed a vigil from the city about the shootings. As part of the story, they interviewed the harpy Rabbi who lead the service. She pretty much laid the entire blame for this incident on the Trump administration, even before the bodies were cold and the Police had finished interviewing people.
Given that, I'm sure that the Compost would just LOVE Leftist Rabbis like this.
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I have a lot of contempt for these "Jews for Jesus" folks for far more than their religious beliefs. But the Leftists running the Temples out here have kept me from going to services, even when my parents and brother passed away.
Yes Virginia, you CAN be Jewish AND Christian ..ask the disciples and the early church.
Yes Virginia, you CAN be Jewish AND Christian ..ask the disciples and the early church.
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Strange how the first Christian was Jewish (Yeshua).
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