Greg Schneider

New York, US

Executive Vice President, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference)

Gregory Schneider was appointed Executive Vice President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in 2009. A passionate advocate for Holocaust survivors, he joined the Claims Conference in 1995 as an assistant to the then Executive Vice President, becoming Director of Allocations and Chief Operating Officer.

 

Mr. Schneider has overseen the creation and implementation of several Claims Conference individual compensation payment programs for Jewish victims of Nazism. Chief among these was the Program for Former Slave and Forced Laborers, which paid $1.6 billion to 173,000 Holocaust survivors in 87 countries, the result of distributing and processing applications in eight languages, working with hundreds of local organizations worldwide that assisted applicants, and helping document tens of thousands of claims that otherwise would have been deemed ineligible. Mr. Schneider also guided the creation of many additional programs to compensate victims such as the victims of Nazi medical experiments, former refugees to Switzerland, survivors of the Nazi occupation of Budapest, first-ever one-time payments to Nazi victims in the former Soviet Union, child survivors, Kindertransport survivors, new pension programs, and pensions for Righteous Gentiles.

 

He has overseen negotiations with the German government that have substantially liberalized eligibility criteria for direct compensation programs, fundamentally altering their contours and enabling tens of thousands of additional victims to receive payments resulted in dramatic increases in funding for home care for Holocaust survivors. The increase in allocations has enabled pioneering care for Nazi victims as they age and require more assistance.  In 2021, the Claims Conference will distribute approximately $625 million in direct compensation to over 260,000 survivors in 83 countries and will allocate approximately $640 million in grants to over 300 social service agencies worldwide that provide vital services for Holocaust survivors, such as home care, food, and medicine.

 

In addition, under his leadership, the Claims Conference is a leader in funding Holocaust education from teacher training programs to archival preservation and accessibility to Holocaust film. Further, the Claims Conference has released a series of Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Studies globally. These studies have been receiving global media attention due to results showing a general lack of Holocaust knowledge and have led to growing momentum for greater Holocaust education in the United States, Canada and now Austria.

Mr. Schneider received his BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and his MA in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University. He earned a Master in Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. After working in the private sector for several years, Mr. Schneider joined the Claims Conference.