Inaugural Benediction an Opportunity

I n December 2015 Rabbi Marvin (Moshe Chaim) Hier founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles denounced Donald Trump’s plan to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. A year later after receiving an invitation from the Presidential Inaugural Committee Rabbi Hier readily agreed to deliver the benediction at the inauguration ceremony on January 20.

“I am very proud to be an American Jew” Rabbi Hier told Mishpacha in a phone interview. “I am very proud to accept this invitation.” Rabbi Hier says he didn’t hesitate for a second when he got the offer — despite the potential backlash from members of the Jewish community. “I say to these critics we only have one election every four years. The election is over and it’s preposterous to try to undo the election ” he said. “We live in the freest country in the world. Yidden thrive here. Judaism is thriving in America. So to turn down an invitation from the president of the United States made on his behalf would be an insult and ludicrous.”

Rabbi Hier who was named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2007 is not new to the center stage. In 1988 he delivered the benediction at the Republican National Convention. But this marks the first time an Orthodox Jewish clergyman will participate in the inauguration of a US president.

Rabbi Hier plans to pick a selection from the Torah and Tehillim that touch on issues most relevant to us today. “The good thing about our Torah is that it’s timeless it doesn’t only talk to one generation” Hier told Mishpacha. “It talks to every generation. And there is plenty of source material from which to draw such a comparison that would fit the issues facing our world in the 21st century.”