From the very start, the center grew rapidly. In 1985 the museum claimed to have 25,000 visitors annually and the center 273,000 contributing members, including 47,000 Californians. Between 1984 and 1990 the center published seven volumes of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, that focused on the scholarly study of the Holocaust. In 1990, it had become one of the largest Jewish organizations in America with 380,000 members. The same year, Sheldon Teitelbaum and Tom Waldman profiled Hier in the Los Angeles Times, describing him as the "unorthodox rabbi", and characterized his success as follows:
