fbpx

Arnold Schwarzenegger donates $100,000 to Simon Wiesenthal Center

[additional-authors]
August 15, 2017
Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival, May 20, 2017. Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated $100,000 to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which combats anti-Semitism and bigotry, in the wake of the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The actor and former California governor announced the donation Sunday on Facebook, where he wrote that he was “horrified” by the previous day’s rally bringing together neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right activists. The rally featured racist and anti-Semitic slogans, and a car-ramming attack by a participant killed a counterprotester and injured at least 19 people. Two police officers monitoring the rally also died when their helicopter crashed.

“I have been horrified by the images of Nazis and white supremacists marching in Charlottesville and I was heartbroken that a domestic terrorist took an innocent life,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “My message to them is simple: you will not win. Our voices are louder and stronger. There is no white America — there is only the United States of America.”

Schwarzenegger, also a former bodybuilder, said he has worked with the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center for decades, and admires “the Center’s mission of expanding tolerance through education and fighting hate all over America — in the streets and online.”

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

A Bisl Torah — Season of Renewal

What is it that we want to renew within ourselves, strengthen, embolden, and what characteristics and traits should ultimately be discarded?

Mark Ruffalo, Meet Dolly Parton

Instead of the arrogance of cynicism, Parton embodied the innocence of humility. We could all use some of that humility.

The Legacy of Everyday Love

We may not remember every conversation or every accomplishment, but we remember how people made us feel. In the end, it is those ordinary acts of kindness that stay with us the longest.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.