Why did a ‘rabbi’ praise ‘Jesus the Messiah’ in prayer at a rally with Mike Pence?

A ’rabbi’ joined Mike Pence on stage during a rally in Michigan on Monday night to pray for the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

But his prayer left some angry.

Rabbi Loren Jacobs, who was not ordained by any Jewish rabbinical seminary, leads the Messianic synagogue Shema Yisrael. In his prayer, Jacobs praised “Jesus the Messiah” and didn’t mention the names of the 11 victims who were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

“Our nation is so divided right now,” Jacobs said during the rally in Grand Rapids, as heard in a video from C-SPAN. “The hate-inspired shooting in the synagogue in Pittsburgh is the latest evidence of this.

“Lord, please work so that instead of division in our nation there is unity and peace.”

Many on Twitter were upset with the decision to feature a “Christian rabbi” during a prayer for an apparent hate crime against Jews, while others noted that Jacobs did not mention any of the victims by name — but did bring up the names of Republican politicians.

Lena Epstein, a Jewish Republican who is running for U.S. Congress in Michigan, wrote on Twitter that she invited the rabbi because “we must unite as a nation — while embracing our religious differences.”

So why was Jacobs praising Jesus?

Jacobs believes in Messianic Judaism, which combines Christianity and Judaism.

Shema Yisreal, a synagogue in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, describes the Messianic faith on its website.

“Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish people who believe that Yeshua (Jesus’ original name in Hebrew) is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. Yeshua is the most Jewish of Jews,” the statement reads. “The Messianic movement was entirely Jewish at its inception, and continued to exist as an authentic Jewish movement for 700 years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection.”

“Messianic Jews have not stopped being Jewish. On the contrary, we remain strongly Jewish in our identity and lifestyle,” it continues. “The Tenach (the Old Testament Scriptures) provides the foundation of our Jewish faith, and the New Covenant Scriptures (which were also written by Jews) the completion of our Jewish faith.”

In short, members say they maintain their Jewish identity while recognizing Jesus as the son of God, as explained by JewishVoice.org.

A 2012 article in The Atlantic estimated that there were up to 250,000 Messianic Jews in the U.S.

Detroit-area Rabbi Jason Miller wrote on Twitter that inviting a Messianic leader to pray for the synagogue victims is “pathetic.”

“There are over 60 rabbis in Michigan & yet the only rabbi the Michigan RNC could find to offer a prayer for the 11 Jewish victims in Pittsburgh at the Mike Pence rally was a local Jews for Jesus rabbi?” he asked on Twitter.

The Times of Israel referred to Jacobs as a “Messianic Christian” and said the faith is not accepted as Jewish by most Jews.

“Some Messianic Jews want the movement to be accepted as a sect of Judaism,” according to The Times of Israel, “but mainstream Jewish movements emphatically reject this, saying the ideology is a contradiction.”