Arnold Schwarzenegger donates £80,000 to Simon Wiesenthal Centre
Actor, politician and ex-bodybuilder lends support to the anti-racism group after a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated £77,000 ($100,000) to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, 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 counter protester 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 Centre for decades, and admires “the Centre’s mission of expanding tolerance through education and fighting hate all over America — in the streets and online.”
I'm proud to support the @simonwiesenthal Center and I'm donating to help expand their programs to stop hate. https://t.co/wzsc8c8v5W
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) August 14, 2017
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