Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf, the son of Holocaust survivors, believes that his family’s history and his role owning an NFL franchise give him a unique responsibility: to use his platform to educate younger generations about the dangers of antisemitism and bigotry. 

That mission was on display Saturday, when Wilf was joined by Vikings defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez, offensive lineman Walter Rouse, defensive end Elijah Williams and former Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe as the group took a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum together with a group of Black and Indigenous Minneapolis-area high school students. 

The visit marked the sixth such trip coordinated by the Vikings and the nonprofit Project Success and was aimed at exposing students to history through tours of both the Holocaust museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

“It’s very important for young people to learn about history and how they can make an impact on the world and society,” Wilf told Jewish Insider during the group’s guided tour of the Holocaust museum. “To learn the history of the world — where sometimes there’s hatred and bigotry and see what it can lead to — and also learn the impact of an individual: how an individual can change things, can fight back and how we can set an example by being tolerant and learning from each other.”

Wilf and his brother, Zygi Wilf, have owned the Minnesota Vikings since 2005. Wilf’s family has long supported Holocaust education and survivor organizations, including Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. He is the current chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, after recently serving as chair of the Jewish Federations of North America.

During World War II, Wilf’s father, Joseph, was deported with his family to a Siberian labor camp. His mother, Elizabeth, survived by escaping the Lvov ghetto and hiding in a barn with her family until liberation. Joseph and Elizabeth met at a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war, married and came to America.

For Wilf, the Vikings’ partnership with Project Success connects his professional platform with that family legacy.

“My parents, grandparents, are all Holocaust survivors, so it’s deeply personal to myself and my family,” Wilf said. “We’re very privileged to be in this country and as Americans, and being part of the NFL … so I’m going to use that platform to help educate.”

The veteran Vikings owner acknowledged that antisemitism is “much more out there” today, but emphasized that the need for education remains constant. “It doesn’t matter when the time is, to be educated is important,” he said. “Every generation has to learn that history over and over again. The bigotries, the prejudices, the hatreds — these lessons are always critical to making society better.”

“All these lessons from history, these things happened, and now, by going through these museums and being on the street, they [the students] are now witnesses, and they have a responsibility to tell, to learn that as individuals they can make an impact,” he added. 

Beyond exposing students to Holocaust history, Wilf said it was also important for Vikings players to join the tour — both to help guide the students and to experience the history themselves.

“Our Vikings players are so appreciative of representing the Vikings and being here,” Wilf said. “People look up to professional athletes like the Minnesota Vikings. We’re appreciative that they’re great ambassadors for our organization, and they’re learning as well at the same time.” 

Rouse, an offensive tackle who was selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, told JI that it was his first time on the trip and that he would not hesitate to do it again. He said the experience was especially enlightening for him based on “how little I learned in high school on what happened in the Holocaust.”

“The main thing I knew was about Anne Frank and Auschwitz,” Rouse said. “It’s important that everyone at least understands and gets a glimpse of what happened with the Holocaust, especially with the state of the world today.”

“The fact that you had people [Wilf’s parents] that were able to survive the Holocaust and still persevere through to have raised someone like Mark and have that strength to move forward and to get through that evil — it’s just important,” he added. “It’s a disgusting part of the history of the world, but I think it’s important that everyone knows about that.”

Rouse said that having the students in attendance was especially important: 

“A few of them [the students] talked about how they didn’t even know a lot about the Holocaust, they only learned a couple things,” Rouse said. “They may have known a lot about slavery, but they didn’t know about the Holocaust. Being able to see that perspective actually brings us closer together because we have more things in common with one another. I think that’s one thing that we can connect and share and come together that can just help bring us forward.” 

Rouse said the effort is something that more NFL teams and players should emulate. “I think there are players in every single team that do want to get involved, do want to help,” he said. “And there are students across the country in each and every state that would not hesitate to say yes and come to something like this and be part of the experience. I think we should do this for as many people as we can.” 

Williams, a defensive end who signed with the Vikings in 2025, said the most important part of the experience was “understanding history.” Echoing Rouse, Williams said the museum tour offered a closer look at a subject he felt was not taught in enough depth in school.

“In school, you don’t really get too in-depth of all the atrocities. But when you get into these museums, you really get the unfiltered truth. That’s what we need in society — unfiltered truth so we don’t sugarcoat the atrocities of the past,” Williams said. “We tend to repeat it [history], and this is just another example of the hatred in the world and how we need to avoid it.”

But while the players had their own takeaways from the experience, Williams similarly emphasized that “the kids being here was way more important than us [the players] being here.” 

“The younger generation is always going to be the future, even though we’re not that many years apart,” Williams said. “I feel like them being here is just going to help bring more change into this world, more than the previous generations could bring.” 

Rodriguez, a defensive tackle and seventh-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft for the Vikings, said the experience was important in bringing the history “to light.” 

“I think it just brings to light the history that is brutal, heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, and shows how we could seek a change in our lives and get more knowledge from that,” Rodriguez said. “Just how many souls had to fight day in and day out. You can’t even put into words, honestly, the [amount of] mass casualties that took place. And for what? Someone’s race, skin color or ethnicity? It’s insane.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) would need to reject antisemitism and other forms of bigotry if she wanted to join the Democratic coalition, tempering his recent comment that the Democratic Party should be enough of a “big tent” to accommodate Greene.

Greene, who has recently earned friendly treatment from some Democrats and liberal-leaning media programs such as “The View” over her break with President Donald Trump, has continued to invoke antisemitic tropes, most recently suggesting over the weekend that Israel had pressured Trump to denounce her, and has promoted a variety of other conspiracy theories.

But that rhetoric, for which many liberals previously condemned Greene, has gone increasingly overlooked.

“We are a big tent. We must be a huge, vast tent. I say this is a party that’s got room for Marjorie Taylor Greene if she wants to come over. We’ve got room for anybody who wants to stand up for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights today,” Raskin said in remarks to Florida Democrats shared on social media last weekend.

Asked about Greene’s ongoing promotion of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, Raskin told JI in a statement, “Before I would welcome Rep. Greene or any other leaders who might flee from Trump’s autocratic personality cult, I would of course want to see them repudiate all the forms of authoritarianism, antisemitism, racism, transphobia and bigotry that they have promoted as Republicans and that have become so intertwined with the MAGA Republican brand under Trump.”

He said he believes that some of his colleagues may end up switching parties.

“I have real hope that a whole lot of my Colleagues will continue to evolve away from the dangerous and divisive swamps of MAGA politics,” Raskin said. “I meet Independents and Republicans every day joining the Democratic Party, and I am delighted to work with them and anyone else who will stand up against antisemitism, racism and corruption and for democracy, equality, freedom and progress for all.”

Jewish Democratic groups urged Democrats to keep Greene at a distance.

“She has a track record of antisemitism and opposition to Israel that goes back before she was even in Congress and continued as recently as a few days ago,” Democratic Majority for Israel CEO Brian Romick told Jewish Insider. “The House is a legislative body and you need to get 218 [votes]. You should get 218 [with] whoever you can get to 218, but just because someone votes with you today doesn’t make them a good person or your friend.”

Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that Greene’s rift with Trump “doesn’t change her many years of espousing extremist views, including dangerous lies about Jewish Americans, whether it be the infamous ‘space laser’ accusation or other antisemitic conspiracy theories. So if she really wants to distinguish herself from the toxic politics of Donald Trump, she needs to do more than simply call for the release of the Epstein files.”

Soifer also argued that Greene’s views of Israel — she has accused the country of genocide in Gaza and sought to cut off military aid — “are not aligned with those of Jewish Dems either.”

“If she’s going to provide an additional vote for passage of critically important measures for the American people, including reducing their otherwise skyrocketing prices of health care, then the Democrats should gladly take that support,” Soifer said. “However, that doesn’t mean aligning with her and her extremist views. It doesn’t change the fact that she has continued to perpetuate antisemitic conspiracy theories and espouse extremist and even antisemitic views.”