The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) announced that Dawn Arnall has been elected Chairwoman of the SWC and its Museum of Tolerance. Arnall is the third Board Chair, and the first woman to hold the position, since the SWC was established in 1977. She succeeds Larry Mizel, who served as Board Chair for 20 years after founding Board Chair Samuel Belzberg.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dawn as our new Chairwoman,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC founder and CEO said. “She, along with her late husband, Roland, have been key supporters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center since its inception. A proud American, an activist on behalf of social causes, a fierce Zionist and defender of the Jewish people, Dawn is the right leader at the right time.”
Arnall, along with her late husband Ambassador Roland Arnall, was first appointed to the SWC’s Board of Trustees in 2005 when her husband stepped down to become U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands. Roland played a pivotal leadership role in the development of the SWC. In 1977, he accompanied Hier to Vienna, where they met with Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to ask that he entrust his name to the institution.
“While the Center’s global influence has inspired world leaders and fostered understanding of the importance of tolerance among millions of families and children, its mission is more important now than ever,” Arnall said. “What we choose to do through the programs of Simon Wiesenthal Center can shape the world in the second generation of the 21st century like few organizations have the potential to do. This should be our commitment. It is certainly mine.”
“A proud American, an activist on behalf of social causes, a fierce Zionist and defender of the Jewish people, Dawn is the right leader at the right time.” – Rabbi Marvin Hier
Together with her late husband, they are the single largest contributors to the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, which will bear the name of Ambassador Arnall and is slated to open in 2023. “I am so proud that the new Museum of Tolerance building, adjacent to Independence Park in the center of Jerusalem, will bear the name of my late husband, Roland,” Arnall said. “For thousands of years, the Jewish people have yearned to return to Zion. My goal is to do everything in my power as the new Chair of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to promote tolerance and human dignity.”
On her work as a member of the SWC Board, Arnall continued: “One of the most exciting parts of being a Board Member of the SWC was that we were among the first to initiate relationships with the leaders of the Gulf countries. We organized missions to the UAE, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi and met with their leaders. I personally chaired the 2018 Mission to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We later hosted the first Abraham Accords conference in Jerusalem at the future home of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem.”
According to a statement by the SWC, “Arnall is an accomplished businesswoman, investor and philanthropist. (She) is committed to the causes of advancing human rights, conservation, military veterans and education.”
The SWC also announced that Gordon Diamond, a lifelong SWC supporter, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, has been elected Board Co-Chair. Joining Diamond will be Aaron Marzwell, who was elected Co-Chair.
In her new role, Arnall is committed to fulfilling the SWC’s mission.
“Sadly, today’s headlines remind us that we are living in a dangerous world, one in which hatred and injustice continue to be manifested in tragic ways in and beyond the United States,” she said. “Through our collective service to the mission of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we are breaking the bounds of silence on this issue with a clarion voice of the importance of remembering the past so as not to repeat it.”
