It is a profound honor to interview Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper for this article examining the rise of antisemitism since October 7. I am deeply grateful for their wisdom and perspectives.

Rabbi Marvin Hier

Rabbi Marvin Hier is the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Museum of Tolerance, and Moriah Films, the Center’s film division. An Orthodox rabbi, human-rights activist, and educator, he has devoted his career to Holocaust remembrance, combating antisemitism and racism, and promoting tolerance and human dignity. He spearheaded the creation of the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which opened in 1993, and the development of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem.

Through Moriah Films, Rabbi Hier produced two Academy Award-winning documentaries: Genocide (1981) and The Long Way Home (1997). Repeatedly recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s most influential rabbis, he has maintained relationships with world leaders, popes, and prominent cultural figures, including Frank Sinatra, bringing the message of Holocaust remembrance and tolerance to audiences around the world.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the Founding Associate Dean, Director of Global Social Action, Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Cooper has been a longtime activist for Jewish and human rights causes on six continents. In 1977, he came to Los Angeles to help Rabbi Marvin Hier found the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Together with Rabbi Hier, Rabbi Cooper regularly meets with world leaders, including Popes, presidents, and foreign ministers to defend the rights of the Jewish people, combat terrorism and promote multi-faith relations worldwide.

Rabbi Cooper is a founder of the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism, and Newsweek ranked Rabbis Cooper and Hier as #8 among the 50 most influential rabbis in America. Rabbi Cooper worked extensively with Arab leaders in the Gulf States and witnessed the historic Morocco/UAE/Bahrain/Israel Abraham Accords ceremony at the White House. He’s served as Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which tracks violations of religious freedom in 28 nations. Rabbi Cooper co-authored with Rev. Johnnie Moore, The Next Jihad, based on their interviews in Nigeria with scores of Christian survivors of deadly Islamist terrorist attacks. In 2025, Rabbi Cooper and Rev. Moore met with the new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus as well as with Christian leaders from Syria and Lebanon.

Questions and Answers

What inspired you to found the Simon Wiesenthal Center?

Jews are great in many areas: medicine, business, high-tech. We have a horrible track record in learning from history and applying it to the present and future.

Simon Wiesenthal barely survived the Shoah, having lost 89 members of his family at the hands of the Nazis. He became the Nazi hunter and helped bring 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice.

Throughout the post-WWII years, people advised him to forgive and forget. He became the unelected ambassador of six million Jewish ghosts.

He was a true hero and inspired Rabbi Hier to name our fledgling institution in his honor a half-century ago.

How would you describe the landscape of antisemitism in America since October 7, 2023?

Even before October 7, antisemitism was surging on both sides of the Atlantic, with internet technologies fueling lurid conspiracies and blood libels.

The demonization of Israel began before it even launched its just war to rout and destroy Hamas. Words were weaponized. The UN, human rights NGOs, and legacy media embraced Hamas’ talking points.

In the case of the International Red Cross, they didn’t meet with a single hostage and refused to even try to deliver medicines to the captives.

All this led to the poisoning of attitudes toward the Jewish state and her Zionist supporters.

College campuses have seen a significant increase in reported antisemitic incidents. What do you believe is driving this trend? Why has the conflict become such a defining issue on college campuses?

On many campuses, the demonization of the Jewish state was often inspired, supported, and legitimized by university administrations and professors.

Funding came from Qatar, which had quietly been investing billions in key elite universities to ensure its nefarious influence.

Organizers on campuses across the country used the same slogans, tents, and tactics after October 7.

Elements of the Democratic Party openly supported the “protesters” (rioters), which further fueled and mainstreamed pro-Hamas talking points.

Further, Israel was falsely accused in the halls of power and diplomacy of starving Gazans, targeting children in Gaza, running an apartheid state, and carrying out a genocide.

All false. All repeated 24/7 by legacy media, social media, and influencers.

What role does the mainstream media play in shaping public perceptions of Israel and Jewish communities?

Tell a lie often enough, and people will come to believe it.

If Israel is today’s Nazis, that would justify using all means, including violence, to destroy it.

In the US, social media was used to demonize AIPAC, which was successfully tarred as a nefarious organization.

How have social media and online algorithms affected the spread of antisemitic ideas and misinformation? What role have TikTok, Instagram, X, and other social platforms played in shaping the conversation about Israel and Jews?

Already covered. We need to demand that these algorithms of hate and demonization be changed.

Zohran Mamdani has become one of the most prominent Democratic politicians associated with the democratic-socialist movement. The Democratic Socialists of America have adopted an explicitly anti-Zionist position. What concerns, if any, do his positions raise for you as a Jewish advocate?

The SWC raised concerns about the DSA years ago when we obtained and released its candidate questionnaire for potential candidates for New York City Council.

It included demands that candidates never travel to Israel and support BDS.

Mayor Mamdani refuses to respect and protect Jewish New Yorkers’ right to express their continued support for Israel, a state he does not recognize as legitimate.

New Yorkers must continue to protest whenever he crosses the line, which is way too often, and begin to build new coalitions on the ground with other disaffected communities.

Ultimately, he and his ilk must be defeated at the ballot box.

Are there particular antisemitic tropes or narratives that you are seeing reemerge?

Blood libels, Jews’ manipulation of democracies, apartheid, starvation, targeting of Palestinian children, genocide. All pushed 24/7 on social media and repeated by mainstream influencers and politicians.

What do you think people who are not Jewish most misunderstand about the current experience of American Jews?

We must reach out to our neighbors and explain to them why we care about Israel, why we send our kids to Jewish schools, etc. And we must find local projects that help our less fortunate neighbors.

Right now, most non-Jews get their information about our community on social media.

Does that alarm you? It should.

There are good people out there who would help defeat anti-Jewish hate. It’s our responsibility to reach out to them before it’s too late.

As a final thought, what do you most want readers to take away from this conversation?

Reaching our neighbors is key. WE NEED NEW ALLIES.

Let’s weaponize the truth. Let’s use all legal, political, and social media tools to expose our enemies, forge new friendships, and educate the world.  Let’s not make the same mistake Chamberlain made during WWII by appeasing Hitler and looking the other way.  Let’s remember that what the leaders of Iran would like to do to Israel is exactly what Hitler did to the Jews and later to the world’s democracies

And most importantly, redouble our support for Israel.