It’s not every day you get invited orthodox rabbi say a prayer at the inauguration of a american president, but I was there on January 20, 2017 doing just that. To be clear, as the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Never I have not endorsed any candidate from any party. But I had the honor, like Jew American born to poor immigrant parents, to stand before the nation and the world and – flanked by presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obamaand the incoming president Donald Trump– Say these words:
“The freedoms we enjoy are not granted forever, but must be claimed by every generation!”
In 2022 it is no secret that the political and civil speeches of United States of America they are broken. American Jews, who make up 2.4% of the US population, are the target of 63% of all religious hate crimes. These are not my stats; they come FBI. The director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, he said earlier this month that Jews were being “beaten on all sides”. And those numbers don’t even reflect the latest tsunami of anti-Jewish hatred dominating social media in the wake of the unfortunate explosions. anti-Jewish by Kanye “He” West [Louis] Farrakhan-esque that followed.
In this context, I was deeply surprised to learn that former President Trump had received two anti-Semites last week, Kanye West yes Nick Fuentesat your resort Mar-a-Lago. And I couldn’t help but wonder what other former presidents would like Washington, Lincoln, Truman and Reagan or civil rights leaders like the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and BCourtyard Rustin about such a meeting? It would have been as if they were hosting a dinner for the leaders of the KKK.
I can’t believe a man with Jewish grandchildren who was the first president to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people by moving the US embassy to the holy city, and who invited this native of the New York’s Lower East Side lead our nation in prayer during his inauguration, he could have made such an ill-conceived decision.
Our Center’s namesake, a survivor of the holocaust and Nazi hunter Simone Wiesenthal, loved the United States of America. He never forgot that American soldiers saved him in May 1945. He was mesmerized by the stars on the American flag, each of which represented not only a state, but also the American values of liberty and justice. When I asked him why he didn’t move to the US, Simon replied that if you wanted to fight the scourge of Nazism and the hatred of the Jews, you had to fight from the swamp. If Simon were alive today, he would have moved here.
Simon would be surprised to learn of the former president’s meeting with someone like Fuentes, whose “America First” hallmarks include white supremacy and hatred of Jewry, and who, in 2019, he “jokingly” denied the Holocaust, likening it to Jews burned in Nazi death camps with baked cookies.
While President Trump had never heard of Fuentes, he surely knew all about West, who has repeatedly criticized and threatened Jews on social media. Among his recent comments: “I will kill the Jews”, “I don’t think so [los judíos] they have the ability to do anything for themselves. I think they were born into money” and “Jews are the owners of [la] black voice… we will no longer be possessed by the Jewish media”. He also declared that “we need a government of Christians”, adding: “Jews can stay here, but they cannot make our laws”.
Democrats yes republicans They may continue to disagree on political and social issues, but not on the fundamental principles of democracy that have always made America great. I am encouraged by the voices of some prominent Republicans who have joined Democrats in denouncing Trump’s meeting with West and Fuentes. But much more needs to be said about it.
President Trump, our Jewish faith does not believe that anyone is perfect. Rather than divert attention, I urge you to clearly and unequivocally denounce the two fanatics you harbored and all they stand for.
Rabbi Marvin Hier is the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and its Museum of Tolerance and Moriah Films. He is the only rabbi to have been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and to have won two Academy Awards as a producer of Holocaust documentaries.
