Who is Ari Berman, the rabbi who will deliver a benediction at Trump’s inauguration?
The president of Yeshiva University will be joined in offering prayers by an imam from Dearborn, Michigan
Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, on August 27, 2024. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 13, 2025
Rabbi Ari Berman of Yeshiva University and Imam Husham Al-Husainy of Dearborn represent groups of people who have opposing views on the Israel-Hamas war but who nonetheless gave President-elect Donald Trump more support in November than they had in prior elections. On Monday, Trump’s transition team announced that the two men would deliver benedictions after the inauguration ceremony next week, along with a Black Evangelical pastor and a Roman Catholic priest.
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.)
The rabbi and his YU spokespeople did not immediately return inquiries about his selection.
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center delivered the invocation at Trump’s first inauguration, in 2017. The program released Monday said that Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan of New York would deliver this year’s invocation along with the Rev. Franklin Graham, an Evangelical preacher and son of the legendary Rev. Billy Graham.
Joining Rabbi Berman in offering spiritual words after the swearing-in will be the imam, Husham Al-Husainy of Karbalaa Islamic Center in Dearborn, a heavily Arab suburb of Detroit; Lorenzo Swell, senior pastor of 180 Church in Detroit; and the Rev. Frank Mann of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Berman did not speak out in support of Trump during the election. On Election Day, he shared on 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.”
Who is Rabbi Ari Berman?
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.
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.
Louis Keene contributed to this report.
