WASHINGTON: Amer­ican Jews, in shock over the massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, voiced outrage on Tuesday after Vice President Mike Pence hosted an election event with a so-called “Christian rabbi”.

Pence took part in a campaign rally for Lena Epstein, a Jewish Republican running for the House of Representatives, in suburban Detroit, Michigan, on Monday.

At the rally Loren Jacobs, who uses the title “rabbi” but espouses Christianity, was invited to speak on behalf of the area’s Jewish community.

Instead of opening up with prayers for the 11 Jews shot dead at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, Jacobs praised Jesus Christ and then offered prayers for four Republican candidates.

“I pray that you will enable Vice President Pence to fulfill his many and important responsibilities with excellence,” he added.

At the end of the rally, Pence, a devout Christian and hero of evangelicals, invited Jacob back to say a prayer for the victims as “a leader of the Jewish community here in Michigan”.

Jacobs then offered words for the dead in the form of a prayer to Jesus Christ, without naming any of them.

Jews expressed outrage over social media, noting Jacobs’s appearance came just days after the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue by a man who later told police “I just want to kill Jews”.

The attack was believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic act of violence in US history.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018