Arthur Schneier

Arthur Schneier (b. March 20 1930 in Vienna, Austria) is an American rabbi, and founder and head of the United Nations recognized NGO, The Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier fled in November 1938 from Vienna to Budapest, where he survived the Holocaust in the Budapest ghetto. In 1947 he moved to the United States. Schneier became a Rabbi and was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology at Yeshiva University in New York City. He has been the spiritual leader of the Park East Synagogue since 1962.

In 1976, Rabbi Schneier founded the Park East Day School as an early childhood facility (nursery school). [ Goldman, Victoria; Hausman, Catherine. "The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools and Selective Public Schools". New York : Soho Press, 2001, p. 403. ] Four years later, the nursery school merged with the East Side Hebrew Institute ("ESHI"), [Freedman, Yael A. “What happens when a Day School moves from Lower to Upper East Side of NY?”, "The Jewish Week - American Examiner" (Week of April 18, 1982), p. 22.] and has since included an elementary school program through the eighth grade, with Rabbi Schneier as its dean.

In 2001, he was the first Rabbi to be awarded the “Presidential Citizens Medal” by the United States President Bill Clinton.

He addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 27 June 2007 and recalled that a new mutation of anti-Semitism, fanned by extremists on the left and right and radical Islam, was casting a shadow on the core values of Europe. He said that it was essential that the Cross, the Crescent and the Star of David become symbols of peace, tolerance and mutual respect.

Arthur Schneier has devoted his life to connecting with Holocaust survivors and world understanding and tolerance. He is the founder and president of the “Appeal of Conscience Foundation”.

He has hosted Pope Benedict XVI at Park East Synagogue on Friday, April 18, 2008. The pope presented the synagogue with a replica of a medieval Jewish manuscript from the Vatican library and received three gifts: a seder plate, a Passover haggadah and a box of matzo.

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