THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
his removal after he once criticized the Wiesenthal Center
in print. Several years ago Prof. Lipstadt wrote an arti-
cle in Judiasm in which she cited the "program, publici-
ty, and fund-raising tactics of the Simon Wiesenthal Cen-
ter" as "partially responsible for accelerating the growth
of opposition to Holocaust commemoration." She said
Rabbi Hier called her after the article appeared and told
her he had just read her "latest joke in Judaism" and went
on, she said, to verbally attack her for intellectual dishones-
ty, writing malicious lies and being hired by UCLA to at-
tack the Wiesenthal Center. "Anyone who criticizes them
is dismissed as ignorant or institutionally jealous," said
Lipstadt.
Some of the strongest criticism of the Wiesenthal Center
comes from those most familiar with its operation. Inter-
views with staff members — past and present — and with
Holocaust experts found those who accused Rabbi Hier
of "trivializing the Holocaust by exploiting the tragedy
to raise funds."
These critics say the Center portrays itself as a serious,
scholarly institution but it is not. They maintain that: too
little money is set aside for research and scholarship; the
resource center is "very limited;" the library is inadequate;
there are no archives and no trained Holocaust scholars
on the premises.
They add that Rabbi Hier is sensitive to this criticism
and in 1983 allowed funds to be used to publish Genocide:
Critical Issues of the Holocaust, a companion volume to
the film consisting of 50 comissioned essays by 25 scholars
writing on historical, sociological, psychological and
theological perspectives of the Holocaust. This year, after
a long delay, the Center published the first volume of a
planned annual book of scholarly articles on the Holocaust.
Still, even some insiders suggest that the real thrust of
the Wiesenthal Center is attracting funds and publicity,
that when national interest in the Holocaust seemed to
wane the Center "shifted gears" and began focusing more
on current anti-Semitism.
It comes down to a question of motives, style and pur-
pose: what does the Wiesenthal Center really stand for?
is the money raised being put to the best possible use?
is the scare-tactic effort used in the heavy-volume direct
mail effort justified?
Perhaps the only person who knows the answers to those
questions, and others, is Rabbi Hier.
'When You Look Back
You Turn To Salt'
"The Holocaust is the centerpiece
of a Jew's thinking."
Rabbi Hier
Marvin Hier acknowledges that "the criticism bothers
me sometimes, but you have to expect criticism in Jewish
life." He attributes most of it to jealousy and suggests
that such talk against him only inspires him to re-double
his efforts. "If there's something they don't want me to
do," he says of his critics, "I'll do it even harder. If so-
meone is told not to give money to us, my reaction is to
intensify my efforts to solicit that person."
For the most part, though, Rabbi Hier masks his anger
as he patiently defends his work and philosophy:
He asserts that "we don't feel we have to offer anyone
any apologies for speaking out on important issues. The
Holocaust is the centerpiece of a Jew's thinking and we
have
created an important Holocaust center.
0
"We operate on the principle that 60 percent of the
L
world's population was born after the Holocaust and is
ignorant of it, so it is our job to recall the past and pre-
vent any re-occurrence in the future."
He says that he felt from the beginning that the ideal
site for a Holocaust museum would be a yeshiva because
it would offer living proof that Judaism had survived
Hitler. "What is the ultimate memorial to the six million?
That Torah lives on, that the Jewish people live on," says
the rabbi. "Our memorial is against assimilation, it stands
for the future destiny of the Jewish people. It's not a cold
memorial of bricks and mortar but a place where students
carry out God's command to be vigilant against Amalek
(the Biblical personification of Israel's enemies). That's the
lesson of the Holocaust."
Responding to the argument that he conceived of the
Holocaust Center as a means of attracting wide-scale sup-
port for his yeshiva, he says: "You have to bring a person
to his Jewish feelings through what he cares about. The
Holocaust is a tragedy most Jews can relate to, while keep-
ing kosher or observing Shabos is alien to so many.
"We believe in using the medium of this generation,"
he says. " I'm a great believer in using the media as a tool.
We have a weekly radio program of news and features call-
ed 'Page One' that is broadcast in cities all around the
country. We were successful in teaching the history and
the lessons of the Holocaust in a dramatic way through
multi-media with the 'Genocide' film, and we're now work-
ing on a new film about the creation of the State of Israel.
We're in Los Angeles and we want to take advantage of
our locale — the many talented people in radio, television
and film.
"But we can't be a serious institution unless we have
a serious commitment to scholarship and education. We've
published two books (the 'Genocide' essays and the
Holocaust studies annual) and we're doing an educational
film on Raoul Wallenberg.
"Look, there will always be criticism that we're not do-
ing enough. But look what we've done in seven years! Peo-
ple point to how much 'Genocide' cost to produce, but
that's a cheap price to pay to bring our message to peo-
ple all over America and across the world.
"The people who say we shouldn't use show business
Friday, October 12, 1984 25
This dramatic
sculpture in the
Wiesenthal Center
Museum depicts the
suffering of the Nazi
victims.