The global address for Muslim-Jewish relations and the national address for Black-Jewish relations.
Founded in 1989 by Rabbi Marc Schneier, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding has spent more than three decades planting the seeds for the Abraham Accords and building the relationships that made Gulf-Israel normalization possible. Decades before the Abraham Accords had a name, Rabbi Schneier was personally introduced to the leadership of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan through a chain that began with the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and now spans the Muslim world.
The Foundation’s programs include:
The Foundation is the global address for Muslim-Jewish relations. It 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.
The Foundation 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 an erosion of trust and to confront racism and antisemitism wherever they appear. Its founding mission, set in 1989, remains a defining priority.
The Foundation convenes American Evangelical Christian leaders and Muslim leaders from the United States and abroad. 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.
Each November and December, the Foundation convenes the Season of Twinning, an annual gathering that brings together thousands of Muslims and Jews in more than 30 countries. Mosques twin with synagogues. Muslim and Jewish student groups, young-leadership bodies and women’s organizations twin with their counterparts. Together they hold joint events, perform acts of service, and stand publicly against Islamophobia and antisemitism. The Season of Twinning has become the largest grassroots Muslim-Jewish initiative in the world.
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