[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 163 (Friday, October 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO RABBI ARTHUR SCHNEIER

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 19, 1995

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying 
tribute and expressing deep appreciation to a truly outstanding 
American, my good friend, the courageous and inspirational Rabbi Arthur 
Schneier.
  Rabbi Schneier has earned his place among the great leaders in human 
rights of this century with his tireless efforts on behalf of the 
world's victims of ultranationalism, religious persecution, ethnic 
cleansing and intolerance. He has risen above religious differences to 
establish the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, which has, for 30 years, 
brought together Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, 
and Islamic religious and lay leaders to solve the problems that face 
our globe.
  As a young man, Rabbi Schneier led a highly successful campaign to 
recruit young people at a time of religious disaffection in the 1960's 
to a program at the Park East Synagogue which eventually became a 
seven-story day school cultural center that continues to attract young 
people and currently educates 250 children.
  This effort, begun in 1965, was the beginning of an extraordinary 
career in religious leadership for Rabbi Schneier. That year, he 
recruited and led a group of political and religious leaders for an 
Appeal of Conscience rally protesting religious repression in the 
Soviet Union.
  Rabbi Schneier then established the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, 
which continues to this day to provide effective and increasingly 
influential leadership on behalf of religious freedom and human rights 
throughout the world.
  Just a few weeks ago, Rabbi Schneier met with Pope John Paul II to 
discuss the problem of radical nationalism around the world and its 
inevitably negative effects on human rights and religious freedom, 
particularly the prevalence of anti-semitism and xenophobia in troubled 
countries.
  The Appeal of Conscience Foundation and Rabbi Schneier have been 
involved in a wide range of the world's most intractable problems and 
most egregious human rights violations. From meeting with Foreign 
Minister Andrei Kozyrev to discuss United States-Russian relations to 
meetings with the Presidents of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia to discuss 
a lasting peace in that troubled region, Rabbi Schneier has taken it 
upon himself to provide inspirational and effective leadership that has 
won him praise around the world.
  Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Schneier is an inspiration to all Americans. He 
has taken his wealth of good will, tenacity and intelligence and 
brought his message to the forefront of international discussions. He 
has championed an issue that touches us all--the protection of the most 
basic human rights and the freedom to practice one's chosen religion. 
It is with the deepest appreciation and most heartfelt thanks that I 
invite my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to Rabbi Arthur 
Schneier.

                          ____________________