The Rabbi That Roared

NAMESAKE: Rabbi Marc meets Rabbi Marc.
What do you get the man who has everything for his 50th birthday?

NAMESAKE: Rabbi Marc meets Rabbi Marc.
A 400-pound endangered Asian lion, of course.
At least that’s what Rabbi Marc Schneier, the founding rabbi of two New York-area synagogues, got from his wife, Tobi Rubinstein-Schneier. The Schneiers were the guests of honor at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo on January 27, when the zoo’s resident male lion was renamed “Rabbi Marc” — in exchange for a monetary donation that will help cover the lion’s care.
Schneier, however, has no plans of bringing his namesake to either of his two homes, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Westhampton Beach, N.Y. Rabbi Marc will remain alongside three lionesses in his current habitat, where the zoo staff anticipates he will sire cubs. Rubinstein-Schneier, who wore a leopard-print Michael Kors dress to the naming ceremony, said she hopes that the birth of Rabbi Marc’s cubs will correspond with her stepson’s bar mitzvah and her daughter’s Sweet 16 so that more members of the animal kingdom can be named in the family’s honor.
The founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, Schneier was in Israel in January for the plenary assembly of the World Jewish Congress.
During the birthday celebration, Rabbi Marc came into view “with a big roar, which is appropriate, because my husband is a force to be reckoned with — in a good way,” Rubinstein-Schneier said.
Also at the festivities was WJC President Ronald Lauder, who, Schneier said, became enamored with the zoo’s cheetah population. “Ronald wanted to know if a cheetah could be named after him,” Schneier said.
At press time, Lauder had not returned a call seeking comment.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.