By Richard Foltin
Birkat Ha’Mazon, the Jewish Grace after Meals, concludes with a passage that includes the phrase, “I was young and now I have become old.” Brent and I were young when, as a newbie at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), I was introduced to him as the Baptist Joint Committee’s new associate general counsel, and we have grown older (not yet old!) together as comrades-in-arms in the battle for religious liberty. I could not have picked a better friend and partner with whom to share a foxhole.
As I reflect back on years of sharing many conversations and meetings, filing of joint amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, and supporting and opposing various bills that either threatened or bolstered religious liberty, a few moments particularly come to mind.
Such as our gathering together with coalition partners to hold a press conference in support of religious liberty — on a frigid winter day on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, by the Tidal Basin! Our rhetoric was stirring, but never have so many been in danger of frostbite in service of this noble cause. Whose idea was this anyway???
Then there was the time during the Clinton administration when, as I was walking with Brent down a White House corridor to a significant religious liberty event, he stopped our conversation short, saying that we had to focus on this moment, we might never be here again. He was right — we must never take these moments for granted.
Or the several times Brent and I, joined by Mark Chopko, longtime counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led classes on religious liberty issues for Florida judges as part of a continuing judicial education program. It sounds a bit like the opening to a joke: A Protestant, a Catholic and a Jew walk into a classroom …
And the privilege I enjoyed in arranging for Brent to participate in an AJC/Project Interchange seminar in Israel for Washington representatives, which allowed me to travel with someone who, for one week, was the most dapper man in Israel. Great hat, Brent!
Throughout the years there has been no individual — and no organization — with whom AJC has been more in sync on religious liberty issues, not only in underlining the crucial importance of protecting the First Freedom, but also in our understanding of how best to view the interplay of the no-establishment and free exercise principles and, particularly important today, of the complexity of the challenges in reconciling religious liberty and other fundamental interests.
It has been a joy to know and work with Brent, and I look forward to many more years of working in common cause (I don’t believe he is hanging up his gloves entirely!) and shared fellowship. Brent, may you go from strength to strength.
Richard Foltin is Director of National and Legislative Affairs in AJC’s Office of Government and International Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Additional tributes:
Chet Edwards: A man of faith on Capitol Hill
Richard Foltin: A partner for all seasons
Amanda Tyler: A steady and strong leader
Holly Hollman: A teacher and pastor who prepared us
From the November/December 2016 edition of Report from the Capital. You can also read the digital version of the magazine or view it as a PDF.
