The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) is the global address for Muslim-Jewish relations and the national address for Black-Jewish relations. Founded in 1989 by Rabbi Marc Schneier, the American rabbinical leader who planted the seeds of the Abraham Accords, FFEU has spent more than three decades building the Muslim-Jewish relationships that made Gulf-Israel normalization possible. The Foundation operates four flagship programs: Muslim-Jewish Relations, Black-Jewish Relations, Evangelical-Muslim Relations and the annual Season of Twinning, one of the largest grassroots Muslim-Jewish initiatives in the world.
Rabbi Marc Schneier founded the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding in 1989 to rebuild the historic Black-Jewish alliance in the United States. In 2011, he pivoted the Foundation to make Muslim-Jewish relations its global mandate while preserving the Black-Jewish work that defined its founding mission. Decades before the Abraham Accords had a name, Rabbi Schneier was personally introduced to the leadership of the Muslim world through a chain that began with the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and now spans Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
For more than 36 years, Rabbi Marc Schneier has built the Muslim-Jewish relationships that made Gulf-Israel normalization and the Abraham Accords possible. The late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appointed him to the Steering Committee of the World Conference on Dialogue, opening every door that followed: to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan. In 2019, Rabbi Schneier was part of the Bahraini delegation to the Peace to Prosperity Summit in Manama and was subsequently invited to witness the Abraham Accords ceremony at the White House in 2020. FFEU’s decades of interfaith diplomacy anchored the religious credibility on which Gulf-Israel peace depends.
The Season of Twinning is FFEU’s flagship grassroots Muslim-Jewish program, convened every November and December across more than 30 countries. Each year, thousands of Muslims and Jews come together as mosques twin with synagogues, Muslim and Jewish student groups twin with their counterparts and young-leadership and women’s organizations partner across faith lines. Twinned communities hold joint events, perform acts of service and stand publicly against Islamophobia and antisemitism. The Season of Twinning is one of the largest grassroots Muslim-Jewish initiatives in the world.
FFEU is the national address for the historic Black-Jewish alliance. Through educational initiatives, public dialogue and direct convenings between Black and Jewish leadership, the Foundation works to repair the erosion of trust between the two communities and to confront racism and antisemitism wherever they appear. This founding mission, set in 1989, remains a defining priority of the Foundation. In 2014, the United States Congress honored Rabbi Schneier’s leadership in strengthening the Black-Jewish alliance.
FFEU is the global address for Muslim-Jewish relations. The Foundation builds and maintains direct relationships with the major Muslim institutions of the Gulf, North Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, and with rabbis and imams across six continents. Its work has anchored interfaith engagement before, during and after the Abraham Accords, and continues to deepen the religious credibility on which Gulf-Israel peace depends. Rabbi Marc Schneier became the first rabbi hosted by the King of Bahrain at the royal palace in Manama, the first rabbi hosted by the Emir of Qatar at the royal palace in Doha and the first rabbi appointed to a regular column in Arab News, a Saudi publication.
FFEU convenes American Evangelical Christian leaders and Muslim leaders from the United States and abroad through its Evangelical-Muslim Relations program. The aim is direct dialogue between two communities whose engagement with one another has long been mediated by stereotype rather than substance. The Foundation builds the relationships that allow each to be heard by the other in their own words.
Rabbi Marc Schneier has been personally received by the leadership of every major Gulf and Central Asian state engaged in Israel-Muslim normalization. The chain began with the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and now includes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan. The King of Bahrain appointed him Special Advisor to the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence; he is a trustee of the Baku Center for Interfaith Cooperation; and he served on the advisory forum of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue. In March 2022, Rabbi Schneier brokered the historic meeting between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, the first visit by an Israeli head of state to Turkey since 2007. He has participated alongside Pope Francis in two high-level interfaith conferences, in Kazakhstan and Bahrain, and was named by The National of the UAE as one of the five key religious figures present for the Pope’s historic visit to Abu Dhabi.
Rabbi Schneier is the author of two foundational books on FFEU’s mission. “Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation About the Issues That Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims,” co-written with Imam Shamsi Ali, has been translated into Arabic, Azeri, English, French, Hebrew and Indonesian. President Aliyev personally commissioned the Azerbaijani translation; the foreword is by President Bill Clinton; and the book was sponsored by His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco. “Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish Community” is the companion volume that anchors the Foundation’s Black-Jewish work. Rabbi Schneier also writes a regular column for Arab News, the leading English-language newspaper in the Gulf, as the first rabbi appointed to a regular column in a Saudi publication.
The Foundation welcomes individuals, congregations, student groups, mosques and institutional partners who want to contribute to building stronger relationships between Muslims and Jews, between Black and Jewish communities and between Evangelical Christians and Muslims. Twinning a mosque with a synagogue, a Muslim student group with a Jewish counterpart or a women’s or youth-leadership organization with its peer is one of the most immediate ways to participate. Visit ffeu.org to learn about upcoming Season of Twinning events, donor opportunities and ways to bring FFEU programming to your community.
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