He’s got a few more divorces before he catches up with Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.
Rabbi Schneier has told his West Hampton congregation that he has bipolar disorder and is taking a Sabbatical.
June 27, 2010, the New York Post reports:
Respected Rabbi Marc Schneier has split from his fourth wife and is now spending time with a younger woman.
A source tells us the rabbi and wife Tobi Rubinstein-Schneier are divorcing after splitting a few months ago, and he has since started spending time with an attractive brunette in her 30s named Gitty.
Schneier, founding rabbi of the New York Synagogue and the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton, is also a spiritual adviser to stars including Russell Simmons and Steven Spielberg. He and Tobi have been married for three years.
Schneier, 51, is also the founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. He often jets around the world to improve interfaith relations and met with Pope Benedict at the Vatican last year.
Schneier, named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential American rabbis, recently told his congregation that he’s suffering from bipolar disorder.
A source told us: “He’s divorcing his fourth wife. He’s a great leader in the Jewish community, he’s just not very good at marriage.
“He met Gitty after he was separated from Tobi and they are spending time together.”
A spokesman for Rabbi Schneier, Ken Sunshine, said: “Marc Schneier is a renowned worldwide leader, and a pioneer in Muslim-Jewish relations. He has been dealing with a very serious illness, and we will have no comment on rumor or innuendo.”
Here’s a collection of articles about Rabbi Marc Schneier in the Forward.
According to Wikipedia:
Marc Schneier (born January 26,1959) is an American rabbi, and founder and president of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, [1] and the founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York and the New York Synagogue in Manhattan.
Schneier is also chairman of the World Jewish Congress American Section, and past president of the North American Board of Rabbis and the New York Board of Rabbis, as well as serving on the boards and executive committees of numerous organizations. He is the son of Rabbi Arthur Schneier, founder of the NGO, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
A graduate of Yeshiva University, Schneier was rated number 37 of the top 50 most influential American rabbis by Newsweek magazine in 2007, and one of the 50 most prominent Jews in the United States by Forward. An advocate of tolerance and understanding between different ethnicities, he has been honored by the United States Congress as well as the State of Israel, and is the recipient of the Kelly Miller Smith Ecumenical Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Martin Luther King, Jr. “Measure of a Man” award from the NAACP, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Civil Rights Leadership Award in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the New York State Martin Luther King, Jr. Medal, and the American Civil Rights Education Services Civil Rights Award.
Schneier has written and spoken extensively on intergroup relations, and is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows. He is the author of the book, Shared Dreams, an account of the relationship between the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish community during the civil rights era, published in January, 2000; the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which he founded with Joseph Papp and is chaired by Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, produced a student guide based on the book which was distributed to thousands of Jewish and black students in hundreds of high schools and colleges in the United States.
In February 2009, he met with Pope Benedict XVI after the controversy over negationist comments by SSPX bishop Richard Williamson[1].
For his 50th birthday, his wife, Tobi Rubinstein-Schneier, arranged for a 400 lb. endangered Asian lion to be donated in his honor at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo [2]. The lion was renamed “Rabbi Marc”.
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS REPORTS MAY 25, 2010:
A New York City orthodox rabbi says his popularity at the White House is probably due to his outreach efforts in the Muslim world.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, is one of the very few Orthodox guests reported to be on the list for an upcoming White House reception celebrating Jewish Heritage Month.
…Other than Schneier, few — if any — are expected to be Orthodox Jews or rabbinical scholars. The rabbi, who heads two congregations in the Big Apple and spoke at the 2008 Democratic Convention, told the Associated Press that he believes he was invited for political reasons. Rabbi Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an interfaith group he founded in 1989 with the late Joseph Papp. He also has a long track record in building ties with the black community, both in New York and nationwide.
