Rabbi Marvin Hier – World Changer from Jerusalem

Proud to be J · World Changers from Jerusalem

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Rabbi Marvin Hier

Founder & Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center · Co-founder, Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem

Born in 1939 in New York City to parents from Poland, and raised on the Lower East Side.
Received rabbinic ordination in 1962 and served as a congregational rabbi in Vancouver from 1964.
In 1977, after visiting Holocaust sites in Europe, founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Leads the Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
Founded the Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles and served as its dean.
Heads Moriah Films, the Center's film division.
Won two Academy Awards, for the documentaries Genocide (1981) and The Long Way Home (1997).
In 1993 Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, after visiting the Los Angeles museum, invited the Center to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.
Provided the vision for the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, which he co-chairs with Larry Mizel.
The Jerusalem museum focuses on dialogue and on Israel's story as a Jewish and democratic state.
Joined President George W. Bush's 2008 delegation to Jerusalem for Israel's 60th anniversary.
Was honored as a torchbearer at Israel's national Independence Day ceremony in 2017.
Newsweek named him the most influential rabbi in America in 2007 and 2008; France made him a Chevalier of the Ordre National du Mérite in 1993.

From the vision of Isaiah · Isaiah 62:6

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.”

עַל חוֹמֹתַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלִַם הִפְקַדְתִּי שֹׁמְרִים, כָּל הַיּוֹם וְכָל הַלַּיְלָה תָּמִיד לֹא יֶחֱשׁוּ.

For half a century he has been a watchman who never stays silent – guarding memory and standing against hatred.

Support & connect: Simon Wiesenthal Center – Rabbi Hier · Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem

Verse in English from the King James Version. Facts compiled from public sources, October 2026.