Rabbi Loren Jacobs is from the Messianic congregation Shema Yisrael where elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition are combined with Christianity - including holding the belief that Jesus is the Messiah.
After Mike Pence - who is a Christian, called Jacobs to the stage, the rabbi said: "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, too."
On Saturday, Robert Gregory Bowers killed eight men and three women inside the Tree of Life Synagogue during worship services before a tactical police team tracked him down and shot him.
Thousands of people have taken to Twitter to criticise Pence's selection of Jacobs to pray.
One user tweeted: "I agree with this thread 100% - the messaging is sinister and intentional. Trump has been sending anti-Semitic coded messages since Day 1 of his campaign."
Since Mike Pence's "Rabbi" couldn't care to read the names of the #TreeofLife dead (he prayed for Republican candidates) we went to the Metropolitan Republican Club and read them before they called the police to arrest us mid prayer. https://t.co/WdmTOwoUpj
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) October 30, 2018
Another person commented: "It's like saying a Buddhist Imam or Hindu priest... bizarre."
However, some social media users have highlighted the complexity of discrediting so called Christian rabbis.
Joining a thread on Twitter that attracted close to 2,000 comments, a Twitter user said: "It's complicated because depending on one's reading of Jewish law it's not just a religion - it's can also be perceived as ethnicity - an ethnic-religion. All of the first Christians were Jews - it was a sect within Judaism."
Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.
