Policy Counsel
David Segal
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 202.544.4226 x303
Pronouns: he/him
For media requests, contact Israel Igualate | [email protected]
Rabbi David Segal is BJC’s policy counsel, implementing legislative and policy reform strategies, conducting legal analysis on relevant litigation matters, and collaborating with BJC’s Christians Against Christian Nationalism movement on grasstops mobilization.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Classics and Jewish Studies at Princeton University, Segal worked as a legislative assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) in Washington, D.C. His portfolio included civil rights, criminal justice reform, and interfaith dialogue.
Segal attended rabbinical seminary at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, studying in Jerusalem and New York City. After his 2010 ordination, he served a congregation in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado with his wife and co-clergy, Cantor Rollin Simmons. In 2017, Segal moved back to his hometown of Houston, Texas, to found RAC-TX as its lead organizer, overseeing statewide social justice campaigns through several sessions of the Texas Legislature.
While working as a community organizer, Segal felt called to law school on his path toward working at the intersection of faith and public life. He enrolled at the University of Houston Law Center, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2024 and was a member of the Houston Law Review. Segal then spent one year as a clerk for the Honorable Yvonne Y. Ho, Magistrate Judge, Southern District of Texas-Houston Division.
Segal and his wife, Rollin Simmons, have two children and live in Houston.
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"Why is a rabbi working for a Baptist organization?"
Read more about David Segal’s calling and work in a special article he wrote for BJC’s magazine, Report from the Capital.
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Recent Media Appearances
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Op-Ed in The Houston Chronicle
How Texas’ proposed curriculum bungles the Bible
“These efforts to infuse Christianity into public schools do a disservice both to Scripture and to our children.”
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The New York Times
Texas Public School Students May Soon Be Required to Read the Bible
David Segal, a rabbi who works for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, testified that the list shows a preference for evangelical Christian versions of the Bible, often the King James version, that risks “an unconstitutional endorsement” of religion.
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Op-Ed in Religion News Service
The government’s idea of 'Judeo-Christianity' doesn’t sound very Jewish
“If this is Judeo-Christianity, it seems that what comes after the hyphen is doing most of the work.”
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The Houston Chronicle
Texas might require Bible readings in schools. Some religious scholars fear the consequences.
When it comes to “Judeo-Christian values,” Rabbi David Segal doesn’t appreciate the term, saying that it once had scholarly merit, but it’s now used for promoting a Christian agenda under the guise of being inclusive.
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The Texas Tribune
As supporters praise Texas’ proposed “Judeo-Christian” curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism
But [Rabbi David Segal] said Jewish texts should not be taught “through a Christian lens” or be insensitively paired with Holocaust literature.
