Marc Schneier

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Rabbi Marc Schneier

Rabbi Marc Schneier is an American rabbi, and founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and the founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York and the New York Synagogue in Manhattan.

Schneier is also chairman of the World Jewish Congress American Section, and past president of the North American Board of Rabbis and the New York Board of Rabbis, as well as serving on the boards and executive committees of numerous organizations. He is the son of Rabbi Arthur Schneier, founder of the NGO, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

A graduate of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Schneier was rated number 37 of the top 50 most influential American rabbis by Newsweek magazine in 2007, and one of the 50 most prominent Jews in the United States by Forward. An advocate of tolerance and understanding between different ethnicities, he has been honored by the United States Congress as well as the State of Israel, and is the recipient of the Kelly Miller Smith Ecumenical Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Martin Luther King, Jr. "Measure of a Man" award from the NAACP, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Civil Rights Leadership Award in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the New York State Martin Luther King, Jr. Medal, and the American Civil Rights Education Services Civil Rights Award.

Sheikh Omar Abu-Namous, Rabbi Marc Schneier, and Imam Samer Alraey opening the U.S. national gathering of imams and rabbis on November 7, 2007, sponsored by Schneier's Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the Islamic Cultural Center of New York in New York City

Rabbi Schneier has written and spoken extensively on intergroup relations, and is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows. He is the author of the book, Shared Dreams, an account of the relationship between the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish community during the civil rights era, published in January, 2000; the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which he founded with Joseph Papp and is chaired by Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons, produced a student guide based on the book which was distributed to thousands of Jewish and black students in hundreds of high schools and colleges in the United States.