By BJC Staff Reports
The White House nominated Rabbi David Saperstein to be the next Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom on July 28.
The ambassador-at-large position was created by Congress with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which also created the Office of International Religious Freedom. The position heads that office, which promotes religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy.
Saperstein currently serves as the director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism — a role he has held since 1974. He served as the first chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2000 and continued to serve as a member until 2001. Saperstein was also a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships from 2010 to 2011.
BJC Executive Director Brent Walker applauded the decision. “Rabbi Saperstein brings theological training and legal expertise, valuable experience serving on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a passion for religious liberty both in the United States and around the world,” Walker said. “The United States’ commitment to the cause of international religious liberty will be in good hands under Rabbi Saperstein’s tutelage.”
The BJC and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism have worked together for decades. Saperstein and Walker were co-chairs of the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, and, in 2006, Saperstein was the lecturer for the BJC’s inaugural Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State.
The position has been vacant since the resignation of the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a Baptist minister, in October 2013. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Saperstein would be the fourth person to hold the position and the first non-Christian.
From the July/August 2014 Report From the Capital. Click here to read the next article.
