Harvey Schneider was elected the new president of the board of directors of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis. He took over the presidency at the beginning of this year succeeding Dr. Ghazala Hayat of the Islamic Foundation. He is the first Jewish president of the board in 15 years.

Schneider has always been interested in Interfaith Partnership. He had a connection through his client and good friend the late Rabbi Robert Jacobs who was very active with the organization. Schneider first became involved with the organization six years ago through one of their sponsored dialog groups. Later on he was asked to join the board of directors.

Reena Hajat, who has been serving as Interim Executive Director of Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Walls, has enjoyed working with Schneider and appreciates his insight into the organization and its purpose.

“Harvey has a deep conceptual understanding of interfaith work and its relevance and importance to the community,” Hajat said.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Schneider attended business and law school at Washington University. After school he worked for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. during the Robert Kennedy era. He returned to St. Louis in 1963 and has been practicing mostly business and corporate law.

In his business life, Schneider has always had many non-Jewish as well as Jewish clients. He has grown to believe people need friends in all places and feels the partnership is one of the best vehicles to develop those friendships.

“One thing that has really impressed me when you deal with the interfaith community and dialog groups, is it makes you of necessity more informed about your own religion,” Schneider said. “That’s not always obvious, but it certainly is true.”

Many programs of the Interfaith Partnership are near and dear to his heart. Schneider is particularly partial to the “terrific education programs” which seek to teach the community about other faith groups and addressed topics such as religious bias in the media. He also especially appreciates the importance of the partnership as a public voice and response from the interfaith community.

“Many religious groups speaking with one voice can have a powerful impact,” Schneider said.

From time to time the organization has had to do healing work and behind the scenes work of a sensitive nature, said Schneider. They issued a statement when unkind remarks were made by one religious group against Muslims and they issued a statement condemning the Holocaust deniers conference. The partnership has also enlisted the assistance of religious groups to speak up against prejudicial legislation.

“From time to time we don’t agree,” Schneider said. “However, if we look for our common ground, then we find something we can agree on.”

Besides his work with the Interfaith Partnership, Schneider has also served as past president of Shaare Emeth, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Central Agency for Jewish Education. He has served on the board of the American Jewish Committee and for 25 years sat on the Planning and Zoning Committee of Town and Country.

Schneider and his wife Leanne have three grown children residing in three different states. Lucy Moses lives in Atlanta, Michael Schneider is in Orlando and Mary Yeldham lives in Chicago. The couple are also the proud grandparents of four grandchildren.

Under his leadership, Schneider will continue to work to help the various faith groups appreciate the importance of dealing with interfaith matters. He feels it is important for minority and majority faiths to appreciate there are other religious groups and people can live in harmony with one another.

“It is so important for people of other faiths to learn about each other,” Schneider said. “Often times when uncomfortable situations result, it is not as a result of malice but a lack of knowledge. It is very hard to become enemies with people you know.”