Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to episode 40 of Awards Chatter

the Hollywood Reporters Awards podcast I'm the host Scott Feinberg and on this episode we are joined by one of the most interesting and unusual power players in Hollywood.

His name is Rabbi Marvin Hire and he wears many Yamokas.

He's the Dean of West L's Simon Weisenthaw Center which he founded in 1977 and he also oversees its two principal offshoots. The Museum of Tolerance which came along in 1993 and Mariah Films which was added in 1995

You might wonder what the rabbi has to do with Hollywood apart from living in the area and the answer might blow your mind

He is an Oscar winner actually twice over and a

member of the academy, the only rabbi who can make either claim. He won for two

documentaries about the Holocaust, 1982's Genocide, which was narrated by Orson Wells and

Elizabeth Taylor, and 1997's The Long Way Home. Over the years, the rabbi has

cultivated many powerful friends. Jeffrey Katzenburg, Ron Meyer and Brett Ratner serve on the

Weesenthal Center's board. Ted Sarandos and Jim Gienopolis are close

confidence. Michael Douglas, Sandra Bullock and Christoph Waltz are among many

Hollywood stars who have served as narrators on

his documentaries for no charge at all.

Will Smith and Jerry Bruckheimer have been honoreeze at his fundraisers.

And Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes even celebrated Chabat once at the home he shares with his wife of 53 years, Marlene.

People like this exist in the rabbis orbit because they are drawn to his tireless advocacy on behalf of the oppressed,

and because he's not only a religious leader but a bona fide

Hollywood power player. If you want proof look no further than the screening

schedule for the Museum of Tolerance Theater during the Oscar season.

Studios clamor for the opportunity to screen their films there because doing so establishes

a sense of social importance around a film that tends to appeal to Academy members.

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