Aryeh Neier (born April 22, 1937)[1] is an American human rights activist who co-founded Human Rights Watch,[2] served as the president of George Soros's Open Society Institute philanthropy network from 1993 to 2012,[3] had been National Director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1970 to 1978, and he was also involved with the creation of the group SDS[4][5] by being directly involved in the group SLID's renaming.

[7] He was the son of Wolf (a teacher) and Gitla (Bendzinska) Neier, and he became a refugee as a child when his family fled in 1939 when he was two years old.

He also led the ACLU's efforts to protect the civil rights of prisoners and those in mental hospitals, fought for the abolition of the death penalty and to make abortions available to those who need them.

[10] At a party in Washington, D.C., in early 1976, an attendee from New York indicated that he would not vote for Jimmy Carter for president because of his Southern accent, to which Charles Morgan, Jr., the ACLU's legislative director replied "That's bigotry, and that makes you a bigot."

[11] Morgan resigned from his post in April 1976, citing efforts by the bureaucracy at the ACLU to restrict his public statements.