Inauguration 2025: Rabbi Ari Berman gives benediction saying Trump ‘acutely feels’ hostage families’ pain
What Rabbi Berman, president of Yeshiva University, said at the inauguration
Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, in August. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 20, 2025
Rabbi Ari Berman of Yeshiva University invoked the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and antisemitism on college campuses during his benediction at President Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday.
Wearing a knitted yarmulke and a yellow-ribbon pin showcasing his support for the hostages, Berman praised Trump for helping seal the recent hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza and said he’s looking forward to Trump bringing peace between Israel and more Arab countries in the Middle East in his second term.
“America is called to greatness, to be a beacon of light and a mover of history,” the rabbi said, adding that Trump “acutely feels” the pain of the families of the Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. “We are so thankful for the three young women who yesterday returned home and pray that the next four years bring peace to Israel and throughout the Middle East.”
Berman also mentioned the pro-Palestinian protests at colleges across the nation since the war in Gaza that started with the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. “Guide our schools and college campuses, which have been experiencing such unrest, to inspire the next generation to pair progress with purpose, knowledge with wisdom, and truth with virtue,” he said.
Watch Berman’s full remarks
Berman was one of five clergy members to speak at the ceremony, including a Black evangelical pastor and a Roman Catholic priest. An imam from the heavily Arab American town of Dearborn, Michigan, Husham Al-Husainy, was originally announced as part of the program but did not actually appear; the White House did not immediately explain his absence.
Who is Rabbi Ari Berman?
Berman, 54, became president of YU, the 138-year-old Modern Orthodox institution in Upper Manhattan, in 2017. Under his leadership, the school has shifted rightward, religiously and politically. Berman’s refusal to give official recognition to an LGBTQ+ student club, for example, led to a lengthy legal battle and considerable internal opposition. The school was also sued for allegedly burying a rape accusation against a member of its record-breaking basketball team. (The lawsuit was reportedly settled out of court.)
Berman did both his undergraduate and rabbinical studies at YU, and returned to teach Talmud there in 1998. He also spent 14 years at The Jewish Center, a Modern Orthodox congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that has served as a nexus for YU donors and lay leaders, before moving to Israel in 2008. He returned to the U.S. in 2017.
While in Israel, Berman earned a doctorate in Jewish thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; headed the Hechal Shlomo Jewish Heritage Center in Jerusalem, and taught at Herzog College, a teachers’ college located in Alon Shvut, a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Berman did not speak out in support of Trump during the election. On Election Day, he shared on the social platform X the verse, “In the words of Daniel (2:21), ‘You change times and seasons; You depose kings and raise up others,'” and added, “Our tradition teaches that we are entrusted to serve as G-d’s messengers in steering the course of history.” In 2021, commenting on the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Berman said that he was “heartbroken” witnessing “the attempt to tear asunder the very fabric of our democracy” and condemned the “acts of violence.”
A survey by the YU Commentator, a student newspaper, published ahead of the November election, suggested more than 80% of YU students planned to vote for Trump, and cited Israel as their main reason. A separate survey of American Jews taken in December showed that a plurality of Modern Orthodox respondents trusted Trump on Israel and had strong confidence that he would effectively address rising antisemitism.
After the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Berman led fundraising efforts, organized prayer groups, tutored Israeli children online, and encouraged Jewish students experiencing antisemitism on other campuses to transfer to YU. Officials said last spring enrollment had jumped 52%.
“After Oct. 7, every prayer, every class, every day at Yeshiva University has changed and been charged with the mission of supporting Israel and the Jewish people,” Berman said in a recent speech.
In May, Berman met in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and gave Netanyahu a copy of his 2023 book, The Final Exam: Letters to Our Students.
Transcript of Berman’s benediction
Let us pray.
Almighty God, your prophet Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem and blessed its inhabitants with the Hebrew words, “Baruch hagever asher yiftach Hashem” – Blessed is the one who trusts in God.
Thousands of years later, this great nation which adopted these words as its motto, ‘In God We Trust,’ stands at a moment of historic opportunity. Americans are searching for meaning.
Our Merciful Father help us rise to meet this moment.
Bless President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance with the strength and courage to choose the right and the good. Unite us around our foundational biblical values of life and liberty, of service and sacrifice, and especially of faith and morality, which George Washington called the indispensable supports of American prosperity.
Guide our schools and college campuses, which have been experiencing such unrest, to inspire the next generation to pair progress with purpose, knowledge with wisdom and truth with virtue.
Hear the cry of the hostages, both American and Israeli, whose pain our president so acutely feels.
We are so thankful for the three young women who yesterday returned home and pray that the next four years bring peace to Israel and throughout the Middle East.
Almighty God, grant all Americans the opportunity to realize our shared dream of a life filled with peace and plenty, health and happiness, compassion and contribution.
Stir within us the confidence to rise to this moment for while we trust in God, God’s trust is in us, the American people.
America is called to greatness, to be a beacon of light and a mover of history.
May our nation merit the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s blessing, like a tree planted by water we shall not cease to bear fruit. May all of humanity experience your love and your blessing.
May it be thy will, and let us say, Amen.
Louis Keene contributed to this report.
