[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL FOR RABBI ARTHUR SCHNEIER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 14, 2013

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, together with my 
bipartisan colleagues Reps. Charlie Rangel, Eliot Engel, Brian Higgins, 
Nita Lowey, Jerrold Nadler, and Michael Grimm, I am introducing 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 over half a century.
  Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930, Rabbi Schneier lived under Nazi 
occupation in Budapest during World War II and came to the United 
States in 1947. He has been the Spiritual Leader of the Park East 
Synagogue in New York City since 1962.
  A Holocaust survivor, and the Founder and President of the Appeal of 
Conscience Foundation, Rabbi Schneier has devoted his life to 
overcoming the forces of hatred and intolerance.
  He has been a pioneer in bringing together religious leaders to 
address ethnic or religious conflicts. For example, in Bosnia in 1997, 
he convened government and religious leaders to promote healing and 
conciliation between Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish communities. In the 
Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, he worked with the Orthodox 
Patriarch and the Turkish Government to hold the Peace and Tolerance 
Conference in 1994 and address religious and ethnic tensions in that 
area. In the former Yugoslavia, he mobilized religious leaders to halt 
the bloodshed of the early 90s, holding the Religious Summit on the 
Former Yugoslavia and the Conflict Resolution Conference to build 
support and consensus among religious leaders of different faiths. 
Since the early 1980s, he has led delegations of religious leaders to 
China to open a dialogue on religious freedom.
  I hope my colleagues will join us in honoring this distinguished 
pioneer of religious freedom with a Congressional Gold Medal.

                          ____________________