Non­fic­tion

Meant to Be: A Memoir

Rab­bi Mar­vin Hier

  • Review
By – March 31, 2016

Read­ers who know a bis­sel Yid­dish will rec­og­nize that the trans­la­tion of the title of Rab­bi Mar­vin Hier’s mem­oir is bersh­ert: it was Rab­bi Hier’s des­tiny to be a mes­sen­ger and a cus­to­di­an of the his­to­ry of the Holo­caust for the Jew­ish peo­ple and the world.

Rab­bi Hier first heard the word Holo­caust” at the age of ten while wait­ing out­side his family’s syn­a­gogue dur­ing Yizkor, the prayer for the dead, when he learned of those who had lost par­ents and oth­er rel­a­tives. Two years lat­er, while prac­tic­ing the Haftorah for his bar mitz­vah, his rab­bi inter­rupt­ed him to tell him, Every bar mitz­vah boy has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to make up for what the Nazis took from us.” As a teenag­er, he won­dered how the Jews of Poland could have ignored Jabotinsky’s plea that they should flee, that cat­a­stro­phe was near. Fifty years lat­er, deeply moved when Ehud Barak vis­it­ed Auschwitz and mourned that the Israelis were half a cen­tu­ry too late, Rab­bi Hier remem­bered. Lit­tle by lit­tle, as he rose in the Ortho­dox hier­ar­chy in Van­cou­ver, WA, he formed asso­ci­a­tions and under­stand­ings not only with oth­er Jew­ish denom­i­na­tions, but also with a widen­ing spread of Chris­t­ian and oth­er groups, includ­ing those engaged in the strug­gle to lib­er­ate Sovi­et Jew­ry and rem­e­dy oth­er injus­tices. As the rabbi’s promi­nence grew to include stand­ing rela­tion­ships with heads of state, British roy­al­ty, and pres­i­dents of uni­ver­si­ties, so did his inspi­ra­tions: first to start a yeshi­va in Los Ange­les, a city that was sore­ly lack­ing in this type of Jew­ish edu­ca­tion, and lat­er on, a yeshi­va for women. As each project attract­ed back­ers, and each inspi­ra­tion led to the next, he added cam­paigns against anti­semitism and anti-Zionism.

Also of great inter­est are the rabbi’s sto­ries about Hol­ly­wood films that depict coura­geous Jews, such as Unlike­ly Heroes,” about Rab­bi Pin­chas Rosen­baum who out­ma­neu­vered, out talked, and out­smart­ed some of the Nazis by send­ing near­ly 400 chil­dren to Pales­tine; this would even­tu­al­ly be fol­lowed by the estab­lish­ment of the Wiesen­thal Cen­ter’s own film stu­dio, Mori­ah Films. These and many oth­er sto­ries can be found in this trea­sured book.

The lit­tle boy who grew up to be Rab­bi Hier, the indomitable, unshake­able founder and cre­ator of the Simon Wiesen­thal Cen­ter of Los Ange­les named in hon­or of the famed Nazi hunter, is the same lit­tle boy who hailed from New York’s Low­er East Side, respond­ing as he matured to the needs of Jews and Judaism the world over. We are lucky to have him and his mem­oir. Meant to Be is not only inspir­ing, but also a great read that reflects his humor, hum­ble approach, inspi­ra­tions, and ability.

Relat­ed Content:

Mar­cia W. Pos­ner, Ph.D., of the Holo­caust Memo­r­i­al and Tol­er­ance Cen­ter of Nas­sau Coun­ty, is the library and pro­gram direc­tor. An author and play­wright her­self, she loves review­ing for JBW and read­ing all the oth­er reviews and arti­cles in this mar­velous periodical.

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