In the News

The Jewish Week By Sandee Brawarsky A local rabbi and imam try to bridge a wide gulf. Rabbi Marc Schneier is the founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an organization that works internationally to promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and other ethnic communities. He recently published with Imam Shamsi Ali “Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation about the Issues That Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims” (Beacon Press), featuring a foreword by President Bill...

Jewish Telegraphic Agency A conference commemorating the effects of the Holocaust on Tunisian Jews was held in Tunis. Historians, scholars and authors spoke at Saturday’s conference, which remembered the 5,000 Jews subjected to forced labor in Tunisia during a six-month Nazi occupation of the country in 1942-43. Some were deported to Nazi death camps on the European mainland. It was among the first events focusing on the Holocaust to be held in an Arab country. The conference also memorialized Muslims...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier December 12, 2013 In 2003, I traveled to South Africa with my dear friend, Martin Luther King III, at the invitation of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, where we spoke at their centenary celebration on the state of black-Jewish relations in the United States. During the civil rights struggle, no segment of American society provided as much and as consistent support to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to African-Americans, as did the Jewish community. Martin...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali December 6, 2013 When we tell people that we have written a book together entitled Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation About the Issues that Divide and Unite Muslims and Jews, many respond with comments like: “There must be a million things that divide Jews and Muslims. But what could ever possibly unite them?” The short answer is: There are far more unites than divides between us. What does divide us is, first and foremost, the Israeli-Palestinian...

Reuters By Georgina Prodhan New York Rabbi Marc Schneier won a small but significant victory on a recent visit to Vienna – a promise from the head of Austria’s Islamic community to promote Holocaust education among the country’s half a million Muslims. Invited to an interfaith lunch along with his years-long partner in Jewish-Muslim outreach, Imam Shamsi Ali, Schneier found himself having a “very, very frank exchange” of views with Muslim leader Fuat Sanac, whom the Austrian Jewish community was...

News.at By Christoph Lehermayr Marc Schneier: “Meine Familie ist damals aus Österreich in die USA geflohen” Fast auf den Tag genau vor 75 Jahren: Bilder von gedemütigten Juden, brennenden Gebetshäusern, ersten Deportationen. In NEWS erzählt Marc Schneier, einer der einflussreichsten Rabbiner, wie die “Reichskristallnacht“ seine Familie und ihn prägte… Das Klirren des Glases. Wie es tausendfach zerbricht, wenn es aus eingeschlagenen Schaufenstern fällt. Wenn es in Scherben...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier and Russell Simmons October 23, 2013 There is a widely accepted belief that Muslims and Jews are enemies and will always remain so. However, nothing could be further from the truth. For the past six years The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding has not only challenged this narrative, but has facilitated a global dialogue between Muslims and Jews that is taking place on all six populated continents. This Muslim-Jewish dialogue is our annual Weekend of Twinning which...

The Times of Israel By Rabbi Marc Schneier As we approach Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, it is worthwhile to shed some light on a colorful, but relatively low profile ritual in the Yom Kippur liturgy known as the Azalzel, or the ritual of the two goats. This is a modern explication of a ceremony performed in biblical times in the Temple in Jerusalem in which the High Priest sacrificed one goat and set another one free into the desert of Judea in order to expiate the sins of the People of Israel....

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier This Wednesday, August 28 when we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and the majestic “I Have a Dream” speech, we should reflect on the singular role the Jewish community played throughout the Civil Rights struggle and, in particular, remember with pride Jewish participation in the March on Washington itself. No segment of American society outside of the black community provided as strong and consistent support for Dr. King and the struggle...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier July 16, 2013 Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool welcomes Rabbi Marc Schneier at the Embassy of South Africa, Washington D.C., June 2013 As Nelson Mandela endures a grave illness with the same courage and dignity he evinced throughout his life, including the 27 long years he was held prisoner, Minister of Public Services Malusi Gigaba said recently that in his present weakened state, Mandela “is uniting the nation without even saying a word.” Indeed, Mandela’s legacy...