Fast Forward

Video surfaces of Hunter Biden reciting prayer for justice at Georgia synagogue

The president’s son attended the bar mitzvah ceremony of his nephew a day after the government expanded its criminal probe

Hunter Biden at Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, Georgia, on Aug. 12, 2023. Photo by Screenshot/Facebook

By Jacob Kornbluh August 21, 2023

A video of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, reciting a prayer at a synagogue northwest of Atlanta earlier this month went viral over the weekend amid his criminal probe.

Hunter Biden was attending the bar mitzvah ceremony of his nephew, Jayden Cohen, the son of the brother of Melissa Cohen, Hunter’s Jewish wife, on Saturday Aug. 12 at Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, Georgia. Wearing a yarmulke and wrapped in a tallit, a prayer shawl, the political scion was invited to recite the traditional “Prayer for our Government,” a blessing which has been recited for centuries by diaspora Jewish communities.

The clip garnered attention due to its occurrence a day after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the assignment of a special counsel to conduct a more in-depth inquiry into Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activities.

“Hunter Biden pleads to God for justice,” was the New York Post’s headline on Saturday, pointing to the passage that asks God to guide the country’s leaders and judges to “understand the rules of justice” and to “grant us the knowledge to judge justly.”

The video, first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week and taken from a livestream of Shabbat morning services, did not appear on the synagogue’s Facebook page on Sunday.

Jacob Kornbluh is the Forward’s senior political reporter. Follow him on Twitter @jacobkornbluh or email kornbluh@forward.com.

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