President Joe Biden struggled to remember details of his daughter’s wedding during a conversation with rabbis on Thursday to mark the Jewish High Holy Days.
Biden recalled his daughter married a Jewish doctor and had a wedding co-officiated by a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi:
He noted that during the ceremony, they played one of his favorite Christian hymns, ‘On Eagles Wings’ but struggled to remember the title.
They asked me — and I arranged it — and I only asked one thing. 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 — and so, I — I asked if that ps — 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.
Biden said they also played a Jewish song at the wedding, which he struggled to remember as well.
“They played — and I’m — my mind is going blank now. What’s the song that is played where everybody is on the chair?” he asked, referring to the tune for the traditional hora dance at Jewish weddings.
“Everybody, you know — what — what — I can’t remember it,” Biden continued. “Anyway. And that’s the song that was played.”
Biden admitted some of the Rabbis would not appreciate the idea of a co-officiated wedding.
“You know, [it’s the] dream of every — every Catholic father that she marry a Jewish doctor,” Biden joked.