[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2723 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2723

    To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Arthur Schneier in 
 recognition of his pioneering role in promoting religious freedom and 
    human rights throughout the world, for close to half a century.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 10, 2015

  Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Arthur Schneier in 
 recognition of his pioneering role in promoting religious freedom and 
    human rights throughout the world, for close to half a century.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rabbi Arthur Schneier Congressional 
Gold Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Spiritual Leader of Park East 
        Synagogue and Founder and President, Appeal of Conscience 
        Foundation, has played a pioneering role in promoting religious 
        freedom and human rights throughout the world, for close to 
        half a century.
            (2) The President of the United States awarded him the 
        Presidential Citizens Medal for ``his service as an 
        international envoy for four administrations'' and as a 
        Holocaust survivor, ``devoting a lifetime to overcoming forces 
        of hatred and intolerance''.
            (3) He received the United States Department of State 
        Special Recognition Award from Secretary Colin Powell for ``. . 
        . his ecumenical work in favor of mutual understanding, 
        tolerance and peace . . .''.
            (4) In China in 2004, he headed an interfaith Appeal of 
        Conscience Foundation delegation which met with government 
        officials on behalf of religious freedom and strengthened 
        exchanges between religious communities in China and the United 
        States.
            (5) He has regularly led delegations of religious leaders 
        to China since the early 1980s.
            (6) In the Former Soviet Union, Rabbi Schneier was, in 
        2004, the keynote speaker at the Interreligious Conference on 
        Peace hosted by Patriarch Aleksey II.
            (7) In Armenia in 2002, he held meetings with the 
        Catholicos of all Armenians and government leaders to help ease 
        tensions between Armenia and Turkey.
            (8) He convened the Religious Summit on the Former 
        Yugoslavia in Switzerland and the Conflict Resolution 
        Conference in Vienna, mobilizing Catholic, Muslim, and Orthodox 
        Christian religious leaders to halt the bloodshed in former 
        Yugoslavia (1992, 1995).
            (9) In the Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia, he 
        initiated the Peace and Tolerance Conference in Istanbul, 
        Turkey, in cooperation with the Turkish Government and the 
        Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (1994).
            (10) In Bosnia-Herzegovina, he met with top government and 
        religious leaders in Sarajevo to promote healing and 
        conciliation between the Serbian Orthodox, Muslim, Catholic, 
        and Jewish communities (1997).
            (11) Rabbi Schneier initiated the interfaith appeal to the 
        United Nations for the worldwide protection of holy sites, 
        which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in May 
        2001 as the resolution for the ``Protection of Religious 
        Sites''.
            (12) In 1980, he initiated the Annual Seminar on Religious 
        Life to educate Foreign Service officers in the religious 
        traditions of the countries of their assignment.
            (13) The Foreign Service Institute honored him in 2001 for 
        ``20 years of excellent cooperation in furthering the objective 
        of religious freedom''.
            (14) He was awarded the Department of State Special 
        Recognition Award from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ``for 
        his 30 years of partnership in helping Foreign Affairs 
        professionals to better understand the right to religious 
        freedom in the countries in which they serve''.
            (15) He has been very active in humanitarian missions, such 
        as mobilizing the American religious community in support for 
        the victims of the Armenian and Turkish earthquakes and 
        Romanian floods.
            (16) A United States Alternate Representative to the United 
        Nations General Assembly and Chairman of the United States 
        Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, 
        he was one of 3 American religious leaders appointed by the 
        President of the United States to start the first dialogue on 
        religious freedom with President Jiang Zemin and other top 
        Chinese leaders (1998).
            (17) He was a United States delegate to the Stockholm 
        International Forum for the Prevention of Genocide (2004).
            (18) Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930, Rabbi Schneier lived 
        under Nazi occupation in Budapest during World War II and 
        arrived in the United States in 1947.
            (19) He holds the Ordination and Doctor of Divinity Degree 
        from Yeshiva University.
            (20) In 2004, Yeshiva University honored him by 
        establishing the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International 
        Affairs.
            (21) He hosted Pope Benedict XVI at Park East Synagogue, 
        the first visit of a Pope to a synagogue in the United States 
        (2008), and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (2009).
            (22) He was invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a 
        keynote to the Interfaith Conference (Madrid) (2008).
            (23) He was appointed by the UN Secretary General to the 
        High Level Group ``Alliance of Civilizations'' (2005) and he 
        was appointed Ambassador of the UN Alliance of Civilizations 
        (2009).
            (24) He was honored with the Knight Commander of the Order 
        of Civil Merit by the Kingdom of Spain, Officer of the Order of 
        the Legion d'honneur of France, Officer's Cross of the Order of 
        Merit of Germany, Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold with Star 
        for Service to the Republic of Austria, Order of the Republic 
        of Hungary, Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the 
        Republic of Poland, the Order of the Star of Italian 
        Solidarity, Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold for Special 
        Services to the Province of Vienna.
            (25) He received the Order of St. Daniel of Moscow, for 
        ``his leadership in inter-religious cooperation and the 
        strengthening of ties between American religious communities 
        and the Russian Orthodox Church'' (2004).
            (26) He was selected Friend of the Armenians for his 
        ``solidarity with Armenians in the cause of human rights''.
            (27) He received the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle 
        Athenagoras Human Rights Award for ``his contributions to the 
        improvement of tolerance and peace among all religions 
        throughout the world'' (2008).
            (28) He received the Guru Nanac Interfaith Prize, Hofstra 
        University for ``fostering religious tolerance and 
        cooperation'' (2010).
            (29) He was the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates 
        from United States and foreign universities.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Rabbi Arthur 
Schneier in recognition of his pioneering role in promoting religious 
freedom and human rights throughout the world, for close to half a 
century.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred 
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this 
Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with 
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the 
Secretary.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 3 under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost 
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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