In the News

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier As a rabbi and an imam who have been working together for nearly a decade to nurture ties of communication and cooperation between Muslims and Jews worldwide, we find it moving that two of the most important holidays in our respective faiths, Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha, will overlap this year on the same day, September 23, 2015. The holidays also overlapped at the same time last year, but normally these two holidays only coincide every 33 years. Such an infrequent...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier Whenever I have the opportunity to attend a Ramadan iftar—the festive meal held every evening at sunset to break the daily fast that Muslims observe for the entire Holy Month of month—I find myself awed by the self-sacrifice and inner discipline of untold millions of individual Muslims who go without food or even a sip of water from dusk to dawn every day for an entire month. I am also spiritually uplifted by the festive energy at the iftar dinners—typically...

HuffPost By Rabbi Marc Schneier I am a strong supporter of the right to free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a principle which is at the very heart of the liberties we enjoy in America. Nevertheless, I applaud the April 28 decision by the Board of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to ban all political advertising on its buses and subways, rather than accede to a U.S. District judge’s irresponsible ruling that the MTA must allow an inflammatory...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier I am a strong supporter of the right to free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a principle which is at the very heart of the liberties we enjoy in America. Nevertheless, I applaud the April 28 decision by the Board of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to ban all political advertising on its buses and subways, rather than accede to a U.S. District judge’s irresponsible ruling that the MTA must allow an inflammatory...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier April 6, 2015 On a February evening in Oslo, Norway more than 1,000 Muslims formed a ‘Ring of Peace’ around the Oslo Synagogue, thereby offering symbolic protection to the Norwegian Jewish community and making clear their utter rejection of the terrorist attack the previous weekend by an Islamist extremist on the main synagogue in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. As the Muslims guarding the synagogue chanted “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” and linked...

The Jerusalem Post By Sam Sokol Jewish organizations say that anti-Semitism is distinct from other types of discrimination, should not be conflated with other issues. Jewish organizations worldwide expressed shock and dismay over the weekend following the announcement that the European Commission is planning on holding a conference that implies an equivalence between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The first annual colloquium on fundamental rights in the EU, held by the commission and titled “Tolerance...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali As Christians all over the world mark one of the holiest days of their religious calendar, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) and the Nusantara Foundation applaud efforts toward communication, reconciliation and cooperation among all faiths. We are deeply concerned about the wholesale violation of the rights of Christians in many parts of the world. Killings of Christians in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Nigeria and acts of vandalism...

 The Times of Israel By Rabbi Marc Schneier On a February evening in Oslo, Norway more than 1,000 Muslims formed a ‘Ring of Peace’ around the Oslo Synagogue, thereby offering symbolic protection to the Norwegian Jewish community and making clear their utter rejection of the terrorist attack the previous weekend by an Islamist extremist on the main synagogue in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. As the Muslims guarding the synagogue chanted “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” and linked arms...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier Originally published in The New York Jewish Week At least we are finally beginning to understand what we are up against. As the war in Gaza has taken its toll and the U.S. conducts a sustained bombing campaign against ISIS in northern Iraq to save the Kurds, the battle lines in the Middle East are clearly drawn. On one side are Islamist fundamentalist, jihadist and terrorist organizations including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and al Qaeda;...

Huffington Post By Rabbi Marc Schneier This article originally appeared in the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) which is a wire service for Jewish media. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is correct to describe a new proposal by the Arab League to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as “a very big step forward.” Yet there will be no serious movement toward peace until Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to the Arab League initiative by evoking the words of the late Egyptian leader...