Kudos to Rabbi Marvin Hier for seizing the moment when giving a benediction directly following President Trump’s inauguration address.
With tens of millions of people around the world watching, Rabi Hier called attention to the ancient and enduring connection between the Jewish people and land of Israel. He quoted from Psalm 137, which records the lament of the Jewish people over their exile to Babylonia from Israel (587-538 BCE) and their continuing duty to return to the land of their ancestors: “By the rivers of Babylon we wept as we remembered Zion…. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.”
Rabbi Hier, the founder and longtime head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, was one of six members of the clergy to deliver an inaugural benediction. At a time when the Palestinians and the Arab world in general are doing their best to distort history and deny historical Jewish ties to the land of Israel, it was particularly noteworthy that Rabbi Hier chose not offer up the usual boilerplate pap one often hears at such events. He instead delivered a moving and powerful declaration of the right and entitlement of the Jews to their biblical homeland.