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Marvin Hier | |
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 Hier in 1981 | |
| Born | 1939 (age 84–85) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
| Children | 2 sons |
Marvin (Moshe Chaim) Hier (born 1939 in New York City) is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, [1] its Museum of Tolerance [2] and of Moriah, the center's film division. He has been a Track II diplomacy contributor to the genesis of the Abraham Accords. [3]
Hier was born in 1939 in New York City. His Jewish parents came from Poland; his father worked as a lamp polisher after arriving in New York in 1917. Hier grew up on the Lower East Side attending the Rabbi Shlomo Kluger Yeshiva on Houston Street for elementary school and the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School for high-school and six years post-high school. Hier received smicha in 1962 from Rabbi Mendel Kravitz, rosh yeshiva of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School.
In the 1960s, Hier served as assistant rabbi and, in 1964, became Rabbi of Congregation Schara Tzedeck in Vancouver, British Columbia. [4] In 1977, following a visit to Holocaust sites in Europe, Hier came to Los Angeles to create the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Under his leadership, the center has become one of the foremost Jewish human rights agencies in the world, with a constituency of more than 400,000 families. The center maintains offices throughout the United States, and in Canada, Europe, Israel and Argentina.
Hier is the recipient of two Academy Awards—as co-producer and co-writer for the 1981 documentary Genocide , about the Holocaust, and as co-producer of the 1997 documentary The Long Way Home , which offers new insights into the critical post World War II period between 1945 and 1948 and the suffering of the tens of thousands of refugees who survived the Holocaust.
In 1990, he wrote and co-produced the award-winning Echoes That Remain, a documentary on pre-World War II European Jewish life, and in 1994, Hier produced and co-wrote, Liberation, the first production of Moriah Films. Under Hier's direction, the Wiesenthal Center has served as consultant to Steven Spielberg's epic Schindler's List , and ABC Television's miniseries adaptation of Herman Wouk's novel, War and Remembrance . He is the recipient of an honorary degree and, in 1993 was made a Chevalier in the Ordre National du Mérite by French President François Mitterrand.
Newsweek describes Hier as the following, "Hier is one phone call away from almost every world leader, journalist and Hollywood studio head. He is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Museum of Tolerance and Moriah Films." [5] In 2007 and 2008 Marvin Hier was named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek. [6]
Hier founded the Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles and was the dean of the school until the 2006–2007 school year.
Hier helped to propagate the 2006 Iranian sumptuary law hoax, declaring the fictitious law to be "absolutely true" when contacted by Canadian journalist Douglas Kelly to verify the story. [7]
President George W. Bush appointed Hier to serve on the honorary delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008. [8]
In 2009, he criticized Vatican cardinal Renato Martino over his comment that the Gaza Strip was a "big concentration camp". He later criticized the lifting of the excommunication of bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X. [9]
In 2009 Newsweek named him # 2 on its list of "50 Influential Rabbis." [10]
A $100 million Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles run by Marvin Hier, is set to be built in Jerusalem, Israel.
In 2013, The Forward called Hier the "most overpaid" executive of a Jewish non-profit. Hier's family received nearly $1.3 million in 2012 from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. [11]
In 2017 Hier welcomed the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles together with Rabbi Abraham Cooper paving the way for the Abraham Accords. [12]
He gave an invocation at the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump. [13] He has participated in fundraising events for Trump's 2020 reelection. [14]
He was "the first Orthodox rabbi ever to give a benediction at an American president's inauguration". [15] He cited Psalm 137: "By the rivers of Babylon ... We wept as we remembered Zion. If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. [15] "
In 2019 Marvin attended the Peace to Prosperity conference in Bahrain. During the June 25–26 economic conference in Manama, Hier praised the government of Bahrain saying, "If every Arab country were to be like Bahrain, the Messiah would arrive!" [16]
Hier resides in Los Angeles, California. He has two sons and eight grandchildren.
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.
The Museum of Tolerance (MOT), also known as Beit HaShoah, is a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, 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.
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.
Efraim Zuroff is an American-born Israeli historian and Nazi hunter who has played a key role in bringing Nazi and fascist war criminals to trial. Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, is the coordinator of Nazi war crimes research worldwide for the Wiesenthal Center and the author of its annual "Status Report" on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which includes a list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals.
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.
Vaad Hatzalah was an organization to rescue Jews in Europe from the Holocaust, which was founded in November 1939 by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.
The term Holocaust museum may refer to:
Genocide is a 1981 American documentary by Arnold Schwartzman.
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.
The history of the Jews in Qatar is relatively limited unlike some of the neighboring countries in the Gulf of Persia.
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.
Daniel Landes is the former director of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and New York City.
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade, with another branch in Edison, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1903 by Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Andron and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
Relations have existed between Bahrain and Israel since Bahrain achieved its independence in 1971. In recent years, relations between the two countries have been thawing, and the countries agreed to establish diplomatic relations in September 2020. The foreign minister of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa has been quoted saying "Israel is part of the heritage of this whole region, historically. So, the Jewish people have a place amongst us." The common threat of Iran has provided common ground for a thaw in what were once tense relations. Bahrain's foreign policy traditionally supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Bahrain has an embassy in Tel Aviv. Israel has an embassy in Manama.
David Shapell was a Polish-born American real estate developer and philanthropist from Los Angeles, California. A Holocaust survivor, he was the co-founder of one of the largest real estate development companies in Southern California. He supported Jewish charitable causes in the United States and Israel.
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.
Moriah Films is the Jack and Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Abraham Cooper 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. He is chairman emeritus of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
It Is No Dream is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Richard Trank, based on original materials created by Trank and Rabbi Marvin Hier, with whom Trank co-produced the film. The film chronicles the life and struggles of famous Zionist and "spiritual father of the Jewish state" Theodor Herzl, as he abandons his comfortable life in Europe to fulfill his objective to return the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. The film discusses to great length the Anti-Semitism faced by Jews in Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and how Herzl's legacy impacted the lives of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world.
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