Rabbi Ari Berman, the president of Yeshiva University in Manhattan, considers it “truly a privilege” to represent Jews and deliver a blessing to the United States immediately after President-elect Donald Trump’s finishes his inaugural address on Jan. 20.
Berman, 54, called it “a momentous time in our history” and told JNS that he has addressed large crowds, but “nothing really matches the scale of the inauguration of the United States.”
“This is definitely a large moment and a true, true honor,” he said.
The Teaneck, N.J., native, who has led Yeshiva as its fifth president since 2016, will be one of four faith leaders to address the country from the U.S. Capitol on Monday. The clergy are supposed to deliver messages rather than sermons.
Berman, who holds a college degree and rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva and who holds a doctorate and who led a Modern Orthodox synagogue for 14 years, intends to discuss his patriotism.
“I love America. I believe in America. America is both a beacon of hope and a progress in humanity,” he told JNS. “I think by remaining true to our foundational biblical values, we’ll accomplish great things together.”
“I worked through my words about our foundational values and how that can help all of us in our individual prayers—to ask God to grant us lives filled with peace and plenty, compassion and contribution, only great success, that people can live out their dreams,” he said.
He added that he is excited to share his gratitude “and to speak to what is the purpose of our nation.”
“It has not been lost on me that I’m the only university president that’s speaking,” he said. “I definitely will address a message of education, of how we need to raise our next generation on the values of truth and virtue.”
“It’s an opportunity,” he said. “I’m just excited to be able to do it.”
A survey conducted by the Commentator, a Yeshiva student publication, published on Oct. 30 found that 87% of students intended to vote for Trump.
A Forward reporter recently resurfaced a social media post from Jan. 6, 2021, in which Berman wrote that he “was heartbroken today watching the attempt to tear asunder the very fabric of our democracy. Such acts of violence have no place in our country.”
Trump has said that he did not urge followers to violently storm the Capitol that day, but he has also denied repeatedly that the events of that day threatened democracy. (At press time, Berman’s social media posts returned no results for “Trump,” and a lone one for “Biden,” also from Jan. 6, in which he wished the president well.)
After Trump speaks, Berman will be the first to follow, after which the controversial imam
Of a Dearborn, Mich., mosque will speak. Rev. Lorenzo Sewell of a Detroit church and Rev. Frank Mann of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Catholic diocese, will also speak. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the New York Catholic archbishop, and Franklin Graham, the son of the late pastor Billy Graham, will deliver invocations before Trump is sworn in.
Rabbis have delivered many benedictions at inaugurations, since the blessings were first offered in 1937.