Israel’s Channel 2’s News Reporter and Anchorwoman Sivan Rahav Meir interviewed Rabbi Marvin Hier at his office in the Los Angeles Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Rabbi Hier served as US President Donald Trump’s inauguration rabbi, and is close to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
“I also got permission to actually say ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill’ in Hebrew,” Rabbi Hier began. “But then what happened was, on the morning of the inauguration, somebody from the inauguration committee came over to me and said, ‘Rabbi, we have a dilemma.
The Latino representative, he also came to us for permission to recite one of the Halleluyas in Hebrew. It would seem like all the quotes will be in Hebrew.”
When asked about Ivanka and Jared, Rabbi Hier said, “Not only do they come to my lessons, they come to other scholars’ lessons.
But yes, they come, and I can tell you that I’ve seen with my own eyes that…when you have an early minyan (quorum of ten men), and it’s..at 7 o’clock on a holiday morning, the only woman there with the first arrivals is Ivanka.
“If the minyan started at seven, and you’re at Hallel (songs of praise) at 7:45, she’s long there…. They’re wonderful people, and whatever advice I’m sure they’re going to give their father, or father-in-law, will be good advice on behalf of the state of Israel.
“I’m honored to be the first Orthodox rabbi in the history of the inauguration to deliver a prayer.”
Regarding the inauguration, Rabbi Hier said, “Why are the Obamas there? Why are the Bushes? And what about Jimmy Carter? Not a great friend of the State of Israel.
What are they doing there? They’re there because it’s the right thing to do.
“Absolutely [I saw feedback about my participation]. It never occurred to me that anti-Semitism only the naive people in the world think there are no anti-Semites.
The world hates to see a rabbi with a yarmulka (kipa, skullcap).
“These anti-Semites, when they see a rabbi with a yarmulka, they think, ‘Oh my G-d, the Moshiach (Messiah) is here already! Look at this, a rabbi with a yarmulka is at the inauguration.
Good. Let them not sleep. It’s wonderful for them to see that,” Rabbi Hier concluded.
