Drawing a direct line between the past and present, Rabbi Hier warns of complacency in the face of antisemitism, underscores the enduring necessity of a strong and sovereign State of Israel.
As the days of national remembrance and celebration converge—Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day—Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and co-chairman of the Museum of Tolerance, speaks with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, offering a deeply personal reflection.
“These days that follow one another—Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom HaAtzmaut—I look upon them as a descendant of Holocaust victims,” says Rabbi Hier. “And I say, let us not make the same mistake again.”
He recalls a chilling moment from history. “In 1919, Adolf Hitler wrote a letter in which he stated, ‘Our final objective must be the total removal of the Jews altogether.’ He didn’t keep that letter to himself—he mailed it to hundreds of people. The world saw it. And yet, the world waited.”
Diplomats and world leaders dismissed Hitler as a fringe figure. “They said, ‘He’s nothing, don’t worry about him.’ And the consequence? One-third of world Jewry wiped out. Because we didn’t listen to the bigots. We didn’t stop them when we should have.”
“We have a responsibility now,” says Rabbi Hier drawing a clear parallel between the Holocaust’s early warning signs and current events. “The State of Israel is a miracle in our time,” he says. “Our ancestors could only dream of it. But with that miracle comes responsibility: to support and protect it.”
Turning to the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas, Rabbi Hier does not hesitate to voice his concern. “This is not ‘like the Holocaust’—but it is like the beginning of the Holocaust. That’s the point people are missing. Back then, too, we dismissed them as extremists, and we paid for it dearly.”
On Schwarzenegger, Trump, and campus unrest, Rabbi Hier shares that Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom he calls “a true friend of the Jewish people,” hosted families of October 7 victims in his home. “They were in tears. Arnold stood up and said, ‘The State of Israel is not just vital to Jews. It is vital to the entire world.’”
Asked about former President Donald Trump, Rabbi Hier expresses full confidence in his support. “He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when no one else had the courage. I was with him when it happened. He will never allow Israel to go under. He had the guts to do it and I will tell the people of Israel, ‘when Trump is president, the State of Israel will always have the protection of the United States of America’.”
When pressed about Trump’s recent openness to negotiations with Iran, Hier is firm: “That’s the language of diplomacy. But I know him—he will not allow Israel to suffer. He understands the stakes.”
Regarding the dramatic rise in antisemitic sentiment on US college campuses, Hier calls it a disgrace. “These are universities built by Jewish donors, and now their students are marching in support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Iran. If Hitler were alive, they’d be waving swastikas too. The ideology is the same—death to Jews.”
As co-chairman of the Museum of Tolerance, Rabbi Hier reminds us that, “we need tolerance among Jews, too. The initiative began decades ago with then-Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek. “He called me, said he had land for a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, which he was going to give it to me. He made it happen. Without him, it wouldn’t exist.”
Yet, he stresses, tolerance must begin within the Jewish people. “We need to recognize the gift that Zionism has given us. Haredim, secular, traditional—all must acknowledge that without Zionism, we’d still be in exile. Without the State of Israel all world Jewry are goners.”
His concluding message is unequivocal: “The State of Israel is the cleanup hitter of the Jewish people. We are definitely at the beginning of a new era, but without the Jewish state, we would all be in danger. With it, we are strong. We cannot afford to let that protection weaken—not in our time, not ever again.”
