I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2387 
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 14, 2013 
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York (for herself, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. 
LOWEY, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. RANGEL, and Mr. GRIMM) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Finan-
cial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Arthur 
Schneier in recognition of his pioneering role in pro-
moting religious freedom and human rights throughout 
the world, for close to half a century. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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: 
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(1) Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Spiritual Leader of 
Park East Synagogue and Founder and President, 
Appeal of Conscience Foundation, has played a pio-
neering 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 reli-
gious 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 
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Interreligious Conference on Peace hosted by Patri-
arch 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 Catho-
lic, 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 Con-
ference 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 pro-
mote healing and conciliation between the Serbian 
Orthodox, Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish commu-
nities (1997). 
(11) Rabbi Schneier initiated the interfaith ap-
peal to the United Nations for the worldwide protec-
tion of holy sites, which was adopted by the United 
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Nations General Assembly in May 2001 as the reso-
lution 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 un-
derstand the right to religious freedom in the coun-
tries 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 Arme-
nian and Turkish earthquakes and Romanian floods. 
(16) A United States Alternate Representative 
to the United Nations General Assembly and Chair-
man of the United States Commission for the Pres-
ervation 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 dia-
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