In the News

Haaretz By Barak Ravid Palestinian leader to publish statement on Holocaust Memorial Day, says former World Jewish Congress vice president. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to publish a special Holocaust Memorial Day message to the Jewish people next week, Haaretz has learned. If the message is indeed published it will be the first of its kind ever issued by the Palestinian leadership. Haaretz learned of the message from Rabbi Marc Schneier, former vice-president of the World Jewish...

Reuters By Jeffery Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times, in an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the overture on Sunday, saying Abbas’s Palestinian power-sharing deal with Hamas, which led Israel to suspend the negotiations on Thursday, put him in partnership with an Islamist group that...

The Jewish Exponent An Orthodox rabbi and Muslim cleric spoke about their joint mission to fight oppression affecting their religious groups at a South Jersey synagogue. They may seem like an odd couple, but Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali believe there is nothing more natural than two people who have come to understand each other using what they have learned to promote harmony between their people. The Orthodox rabbi and Muslim cleric are on a mission to bring followers of Judaism and Islam...

The Jewish Voice By David Portnoe When Imam Shamsi Ali, a Muslim cleric from Indonesia, came to the United States in 1995, he had a host of biases and misconceptions about those he described as “the other,” non-Muslims. Those views began to change when he moved to Astoria in Queens, and his family befriended an Irish Catholic. Ali’s biases toward Jews remained, however, until he met Rabbi Marc Schneier, an Orthodox rabbi and a cofounder with Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons of the Foundation for Ethnic...

New Jersey Jewish Standard By Larry Yudelson A rabbi and an imam walk into the Frisch School together… Jewish-Muslim dialogue went to a yeshiva high school, as Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali appeared at an assembly at the Frisch School in Paramus last Wednesday. It was the first time Frisch hosted a Muslim speaker – and the first time the duo, who have written a book together, brought their Muslim-Jewish dialogue to an American Jewish school. Rabbi Schneier is the founding rabbi of the...

Asian Image A delegation of Muslim and Jewish leaders have called for a ban on Halal and Kosher meat to be reversed in Denmark. The group visited the country recently and met with the minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Dan Jorgensen at his office in Copenhagen. The group, organized by Samia Hathroubi, co-ordinator of the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), was formed to respond to growing Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe. The delegation urged that the ban be rescinded as...

New Jersey Jewish News By Johanna Ginsberg When a Rockaway mosque encountered what it felt was unfair action by the local zoning board to undermine many of its activities, the New Jersey Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee sprang into action. The Islamic Center of Morris County was going to be prohibited from teaching Arabic — because it doesn’t run a parochial school — and from bringing in prepared food in chafing dishes and using a coffee machine, because it has neither kitchen facilities nor a...

CPH Post Jørgensen was informed that the law was greatly damaging the image of Denmark The minister of food and agriculture, Dan Jørgensen (S), met with a delegation of European Muslim and Jewish leaders late last week concerning Denmark’s new law banning the slaughter of animals that have not been stunned. Rabbi Marc Schneier, the President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), said that the delegation was in Denmark to inform Jørgensen that the law was greatly damaging the image of...

The Jerusalem Post By Sam Sokol Agriculture Minister in Denmark Dan Jorgensen banned ritual slaughter of animals without pre-stunning. A joint delegation of European Muslim and Jewish religious leaders accused Danish Agriculture Minister Dan Jørgensen of putting animal rights before religious freedom on Thursday. Jørgensen had enacted a ban on Muslim and Jewish rituals performed without pre-stunning slaughter in February. The delegation included the chief rabbi of Brussels, Afzal Khan of the Muslim-...

Jewish Link of New Jersey By Elyse Hansford Paramus—Two unlikely partners fighting misconceptions between Jews and Muslims arrived at the Frisch School on Wednesday morning to talk about how it is possible to build bridges across a chasm. Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an 18th generation rabbi from a distinguished rabbinic dynasty and a mesumach of YU, openly admitted to Frisch students, “I grew up in a rabbinic home, and when I heard the word Islam or anything...