While being honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Bill Clinton in 2001, Rabbi Schneier was described as “a Holocaust survivor who has devoted a lifetime to overcoming forces of hatred and intolerance and set an inspiring example of spiritual leadership by encouraging interfaith dialog and intercultural understanding, as well as promoting the cause of religious freedom around the world.” [1] Schneier is among the oldest pulpit rabbis in the United States.

[4] During his service there, he has hosted several world religious and political leaders including Pope Benedict XVI—the first-ever papal visit to an American synagogue—and two Secretaries General of the United Nations.

[4] Schneier has met with Popes John Paul II,[5] Francis,[6] and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I[7] to promote and facilitate interfaith dialogue.

[14] Throughout his career, Rabbi Schneier has convened six international conferences to ease ethnic and religious conflict and promote peace and tolerance.

[15]Rabbi Schneier also served as U.S. Alternate Representative at the U.N. General Assembly in 1988[16] and as a member of the U.S. Delegation for Return of the St. Steven Crown to Hungary in 1979.

[15] That same year, Rabbi Schneier was the keynote speaker at an Interfaith Conference convened by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Madrid.

[4][40] Born in Vienna in 1930, Rabbi Schneier lived under Nazi occupation in Budapest during World War II and arrived in the United States in 1947.