Abraham Cooper (rabbi)

Last updated
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Born1950 (age 73–74)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation Rabbi

Abraham Cooper (born 1950) is an American rabbi. He is the associate dean and director of Global Social Action Agenda for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. [1] He is currently the chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Contents

Career

Rabbi Cooper has his B.A. and M.S. degrees from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. from the Jewish University of America. He is a recipient of Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Community Service Leadership Memorial Award and of the Orthodox Union’s National Leadership Award.

In the early 1970s, Cooper was involved in visiting Soviet Refuseniks, ultimately leading to his work to open the first Jewish cultural center in Moscow in the 1980s, and lecturing at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Sakharov Foundation later in his career.

In 1977, he came to Los Angeles to work with Rabbi Marvin Hier who founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Together with Rabbi Hier, Rabbi Cooper has met with world leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, presidents, and foreign ministers.

In 1990, Cooper gave Public Enemy's Chuck D a "conscious-raising tour of the Holocaust Museum. I think Chuck has an open mind on certain levels, he said. “He may be ignorant of some of our history, but he’s not an anti-Semite.” [2] The tour was in response to Rabbi Cooper's frustration with the American music industry, [3] specifically the fact the record labels were releasing music with lyrics that were bigoted and/or racist.

In 1992 he publicly commented about the lyrics to Ice Cube's diss track No Vaseline , in which Cube advocated violence against Jerry Heller, whom he identified as a "white Jew": "We're not asking Ice Cube to mask the reality of the streets," he said. "By all means flag the social problems, but don't exploit them by turning a professional spat between a former manager and an artist into a racial dispute." Cube responded, "It's wrong for the rabbi to call me anti-Semitic. I respect Jewish people because they're unified. I wish black people were as unified." [4]

In 1992, and again in 2003, he helped coordinate international conferences in Paris on antisemitism cosponsored by UNESCO.

In 1997, he coordinated the center's international conference, "Property and Restitution-The Moral Debt to History" in Geneva, Switzerland. [5]

He has testified before the United Nations in New York and Geneva, presented testimony at the US Senate, the Japanese Diet, the French Parliament, the OSCE and is a founding member of Israel's Global Forum on Antisemitism. [6]

In 2003 Rabbi Cooper served on the transition team for Governor-elect of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. [7]

In February 2004, Rabbi Cooper traveled to Khartoum and was the first Jewish leader to meet with the leadership of Sudan including President Omar al-Bashir to discuss human rights and terrorism- related issues. He has met with King Hussein, King Abdullah and Prince Hassan of Jordan, former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and then Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheik Tantawi.

In 2005, Rabbi Cooper participated in an international conference on terrorism convened in Madrid on the first anniversary of the infamous train bombings in Spain's capital.

Rabbi Cooper is a regular op-ed contributor to The New York Times, [8] The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, [9] the Miami Herald, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Globe and Mail, National Post, Le Monde, the Japan Times, The Straits Times and Midstream magazine. He supervises the center's Digital Terrorism and Hate Project.

He has written the World Book Encyclopedia's entry on Raoul Wallenberg [10] and edited two major works on this Holocaust hero.

In 2016 Cooper was honored with the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation Award [11]

In 2017 Cooper welcomed the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles together with Marvin Hier paving the way for the Abraham Accords via Track II diplomacy. [12]

In 2019 Rabbi Cooper attended the Peace to Prosperity conference in Bahrain [13]

Newsweek/Daily Beast lists Rabbi Cooper among the “50 Most Influential Rabbis in the United States". [14]

Rabbi Cooper is the 2023/2024 chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Wiesenthal Center</span> U.S. based Jewish human rights organization

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance education, defending Israel, and its Museum of Tolerance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Tolerance</span> Holocaust memorials, racism and prejudice museum in California, United States

The Museum of Tolerance-Beit HaShoah, a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, is designed to examine racism and prejudice around the world with a strong focus on the history of the Holocaust. The museum was established in 1993, as the educational arm of human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The museum also deals with atrocities in Cambodia and Latin America, along with issues like bullying and hate crimes. The museum has an associated museum and professional development multi-media training facility in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Wiesenthal</span> Jewish Austrian Nazi hunter (1908–2005)

Simon Wiesenthal was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp, the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, a death march to Chemnitz, Buchenwald, and the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Antisemitism in Japan has developed over the years despite the presence of a relatively small and obscure Jewish population. Japan had no traditional antisemitism until nationalist ideology and propaganda began to spread on the eve of World War II. Before and during the war, Nazi Germany, an ally to the Japanese, encouraged Japan to adopt antisemitic policies. In the post-war period, extremist groups and ideologues have promoted conspiracy theories.

On May 19, 2006, the National Post in Canada published an article titled "Iran Eyes Badges for Jews: Law would require non-Muslim insignia' by Iranian in exile Amir Taheri alleging that the Iranian parliament had passed a sumptuary law mandating a national dress code for all Iranians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvin Hier</span> American rabbi, film producer, and non-profit executive

Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, its Museum of Tolerance and of Moriah, the center's film division. He has been a Track II diplomacy contributor to the genesis of the Abraham Accords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Flannery</span> American priest and author (1912–1998)

Edward H. Flannery was an American priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, and the author of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, first published in 1965.

The Bali Holocaust Conference was held on June 12, 2007 in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia. The conference aimed to promote religious tolerance and affirm the reality of the Holocaust and was attended by rabbis, Holocaust witnesses, and Muslim leaders, teachers and students. This event was convened by former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, and was sponsored by the Wahid Institute, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and the Libforall Foundation. Wahid stated that although he is a good friend of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his views about the Holocaust are wrong and that it really happened.

"No Vaseline" is a diss track by American rapper Ice Cube from his 1991 album Death Certificate. The song was written and produced by Ice Cube and Sir Jinx.

The Kreisky–Peter–Wiesenthal affair was a political and personal feud in the 1970s, fought between the then Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky and the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, arising from Kreisky's ministerial appointments and the SS past of Freedom Party leader Friedrich Peter, which had been revealed by Wiesenthal.

The history of the Jews in the United Arab Emirates describes the historical and modern presence of Jews over the millennia in the Middle East and the recorded meetings with Jewish communities in areas that are today in the geographic territories of the United Arab Emirates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antisemitism in the United States</span> Hatred towards the Jewish people within the US

Antisemitism has existed for centuries in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents. FBI data shows that in every year since 1991, Jews were the most frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to a report which was published by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019. Evidence suggests that the true number of hate crimes against Jews is underreported, as is the case for many other targeted groups. In an attempt to combat anti-Semitism, the Biden administration launched the United States’ first-ever comprehensive U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism on May 25, 2023.

The Jewish community in Sweden has been prevalent since the 18th century. Today Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Antisemitism in historical Sweden primarily manifested as the confiscation of property, restrictions on movement and employment, and forced conversion to Christianity. Antisemitism in present-day Sweden is mainly perpetrated by far-right politicians, neo-Nazis, and Islamists.

Antisemitism in Venezuela has occurred throughout the history of the Jews in Venezuela. However, under the presidencies of both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, allegations of antisemitism grew following actions and statements by the Venezuelan government, while also occurring in public incidents. The Bolivarian government would also use the words of "Jewish" and "Zionist" interchangeably in order to avoid accusations of antisemitism.

Sharon Nazarian is an Iranian-born American social activist, academic and philanthropist. She is currently the Senior Vice President, International Affairs, for the Anti-Defamation League.

The Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles is a college-preparatory, Modern Orthodox Jewish high school founded in 1979 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. It has no affiliation with Yeshiva University in New York City.

Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.

Moriah Films is the Jack and Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Angie Irma Cohon was a Jewish author and educator, known for her seminal book, Introduction to Jewish Music in Eight Illustrated Lectures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neve Shalom Synagogue massacre</span> Terrorist attack in Turkey

The Neve Shalom Synagogue massacre happened on 6 September 1986 when a group of suspected Abu Nidal Organization terrorists killed 22 worshipers inside the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey.

References

  1. ↑ Rose, Binyamin (Oct 14, 2015). "It all Begins with Words". Mishpacha (580): 24.
  2. ↑ "Battlin' Rabbi Takes Record Biz to Task". Los Angeles Times. 1990-02-04. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  3. ↑ "Battlin' Rabbi Takes Record Biz to Task". Los Angeles Times. 1990-02-04. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  4. ↑ Owen, Frank: '"…because it rhymes with crew"', Select , January 1992, pp37–39
  5. ↑ "Simon Wiesenthal Centre calls for clarity from Monaco". Monaco Daily News. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  6. ↑ "The Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism". mfa.gov.il. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  7. ↑ "Schwarzenegger unveils diverse transition team". www.cnn.com. October 10, 2003. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  8. ↑ "Madonna Placates Rabbi Over a Recording". The New York Times. Associated Press. 1991-01-06. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  9. ↑ "Op-Ed: Jews shouldn't have to pay with their lives to gather in prayer". Los Angeles Times. 2019-04-28. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  10. ↑ "Raoul Wallenberg and the Rescue of Jews in Budapest". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  11. ↑ "Cohon foundation to honor Wiesenthal Center's Cooper, AZ Jewish Post". Arizona Jewish Post. March 17, 2016. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  12. ↑ "King of Bahrain visits Simon Wiesenthal Center Los Angeles". The Times of Israel.
  13. ↑ Ahren, Raphael. "In Bahrain, Kushner urges absent Palestinians to seize 'opportunity of century'". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  14. ↑ Lynton, Michael (2010-06-28). "The 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  15. ↑ "Rabbi Abraham Cooper elected as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.