Marc Schneier

Marc Schneier (born January 26, 1959) 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 a vice-president of the World Jewish Congress^[1] 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, 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.

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.

For his 50th birthday, his fourth wife, Rabbi Tobi Rubinstein-Schneier, arranged for a 400 lb. endangered Asian lion to be donated in his honor at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo . The lion was renamed "Rabbi Marc".

Rabbi Schneier has been married five times. In June 2010, he announced to his congregation that he has been suffering from bi-polar disorder and would seek a divorce from his fourth wife.^[2] Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for Schneier, confirmed that the rabbi had been dealing with "a very serious illness," while reaffirming his status as a "renowned worldwide leader, and a pioneer in Muslim-Jewish relations."^[2]

Schneier married Gitty Leiner, a speech pathologist and his longtime girlfriend, at an unannounced wedding on October 6, 2013.^[3]

The Rabbinical Council of America has decided to investigate Rabbi Schneier for breaching a code of ethics, and behavior that is unfitting for a rabbi.^[4]

References

• Rabbi Marc Schneier

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Marc Schneier

• Interview with Marc Schneier and Russell Simmons from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• World Jewish Congress website

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Persondata
Name	Schneier, Marc
Alternative names
Short description	American rabbi
Date of birth	January 26, 1959
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death