Free Republic

Rabbi Marvin Hier has known Charles and Seryl Kushner — Jared Kushner’s parents and Donald Trump’s in-laws — for decades. The Hiers and the Kushners have gone to the same kosher for Passover resort, the Arizona Biltmore, over the years. The Kushner family, prominent real estate developers, have also been generous donors to the Simon Wiesenthal Center founded by Hier, for which he now serves as dean. But the Los Angeles-based Hier said he was shocked three weeks ago when a Trump aide invited him to offer a prayer at the presidential inauguration. The 77-year-old rabbi said he accepted immediately...

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, delivers his address at the memorial service for Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg at the Chabad House in Westwood California.

A Jewish advocacy group is urging the Bush administration to deny a visa to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who has lecture dates in New York and Washington next week. In a letter to President Bush, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said allowing Khatami to enter the United States rewards the Iranian leadership for their "policy of confrontation and hated towards the United States and her allies."Khatami has been invited to speak at a U.N. conference in New York. After that, on Sept. 7, he's scheduled to discuss the role of Christians, Muslims...