Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Rabbi Marvin Hier Slams Trump’s Israeli Intel Leak

Donald Trump’s inauguration rabbi has become the first leader of a major Jewish organization to criticize the president over his reported leak of Israeli intelligence to Russian officials.

“No president should do that,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who delivered a benediction at Trump’s inauguration, and who stood beside the president as he signed an executive order on religious issues earlier this month.

“Nobody should ever try to give up invaluable information that the Israelis have supplied,” Hier said.

His comments came Monday afternoon, soon after Trump made an impromptu statement to a gaggle of international press in which he asserted that he had “never mentioned the word or the name Israel” during his conversation conversation with the Russians.

The statement befuddled observers, as no press reports on the closed-door meeting between Trump and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that he had mentioned Israel by name. Rather, the New York Times had reported that Trump had repeated information gleaned from Israeli intelligence agencies.

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell noted on Twitter that Trump’s comments appear to have confirmed that Israel was the source of the leaked intelligence.

Until Monday, Jewish and pro-Israel groups had stayed uncharacteristically silent on the reported leak. Hier’s comments broke with that trend.

“I’m sure he regrets it,” Hier said.

Aside from his comments on the reported leak, Hier was full of praise for Trump’s inaugural overseas trip, which has taken him to Saudi Arabia and to Israel, and will take him on to Italy and the Vatican in the coming days.

Hier said that Trump’s address to leaders of Muslim nations in Saudi Arabia hit “exactly the right tone.”

“He told them the truth,” Hier said. “I think it was the right message.”

As for the Israel leg of Trump’s trip, Hier said that he thought Trump had an opening to bring Israelis and Palestinians to agreement. “Most Israelis regard him as very friendly to Israel,” he said. “He has the leverage.”

Hier said that he wasn’t concerned about Trump’s backtracking on a campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a promise that’s been made and broken by successive presidents

“His timing is impeccable,” Hier said. “The whole world over the past year since the Iran deal, the world has changed… The balance has shifted. There’s a wakeup call in the Arab world. They’re very concerned.”

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.