President Joe Biden appeared to have a moment of brain freeze on Thursday when telling an anecdote about his daughter's wedding, and forgot the name of a song that was played.
His comments came during a virtual event to celebrate the start of the Jewish High Holidays, which focused on recent anti-Semitic attacks, Afghanistan and the hope for renewed collaboration between people of different faiths.
Biden, a Roman Catholic, ended his remarks by calling on more religious collaboration, and spoke about his daughter Ashley's wedding to her Jewish doctor Howard Krein in 2012.
Pictured: Biden speaks during a virtual event on Thursday. President Joe Biden appeared to have a moment of brain freeze on Thursday when telling an anecdote about his daughter's wedding, and forgot the name of a song that played
'We wanted to have a co-confessional wedding,' Biden said. 'And we had a chuppah on the altar, and [...] it was co-officiated. Now, some of you aren't going to like this, but it was co-officiated by a Catholic priest as well as a Jewish rabbi.'
He then spoke about his favourite Catholic hymn, which Biden said he requested to be played at the wedding.
'I only asked one thing,' he said. 'There's a psalm-based, there's a hymn, my favorite hymn in the Catholic Church based on a psalm, and it's — it's a psalm that talks about life. And so, I asked if that psalm — that hymn in the Catholic Church.'
'And it says, "May He lift you up on Eagle's wings and bear you on the breath of dawn, and let the light shine upon you," et cetera, and — "and hold you in the palm of his hand."'
He went on to try to describe another song that was played, presumably when his daughter and her husband were lifted up onto chairs during the Hora dance - as is traditional during Jewish weddings.
'And they played and … I'm my mind is going blank now. What's the song that is played where everybody is on the chair?' Biden added. 'I can't remember it. Anyway. And that's the song that was played.'
Biden was likely trying to name Hava Nagila, a traditional Jewish celebratory song sung and played at some weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
During the same virtual event, Biden told Jewish leaders that he spent time at the Tree of Live synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Pictured: Then-Vice President Joe Biden (2nd L) walks with his daughter Ashley Biden (L), his wife Jill Biden (2nd R) and son-in-law Howard Krien (R) in Singapore, 2013 (file photo)
The synagogue was the site of the October 2018 anti-Semitic massacre left 11 people dead - the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States.
'I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,' Biden said.
However, Barb Feige, executive director of
