Rabbi Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University in New York, was invited to deliver the benediction at President Trump’s inauguration.
In his sermon, Rabbi Berman referenced the plight of the Israelis and foreign nationals held in Gaza, calling on everyone to “hear the cry of the hostages,” and directly addressed the struggles faced by Jewish college students in the face of an unprecedented surge in campus antisemitism.
The rabbi was only the second Orthodox rabbi to deliver the benediction at a presidential inaugural, and the first leader of an Orthodox institution. The first was by Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, who spoke at President Trump’s 2017 inaugural. Nine rabbis have spoken at presidential inaugurations, beginning with Harry S. Truman in 1949.