WASHINGTON (RNS) — A half-century after arriving in the nation’s capital to work as a lobbyist for Reform Judaism, Rabbi David Saperstein is still energized by the work he’s doing — and he’s still doing a lot of work.
This summer, Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, traveled with an evangelical Christian pastor and an imam to Ghana, where the three hope to expand their efforts to get clergy of the three Abrahamic religions to meet, dialogue and work together on community projects. He’s also been meeting with groups who are devastated and distrusting of each other since the Middle East crisis took a sharp turn on Oct. 7, 2023.
Sitting in his office at the center on a recent damp December day in Washington, Saperstein declined a call with U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin that came in during his interview with RNS before racing off afterward for a meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“That I ended up with a career in which somebody paid me a salary to do work that I would rather be doing than anything else I can imagine has been the blessing of my life,” Saperstein, 77, said.
On a webinar held in late October, an eclectic group of staffers and people he’s mentored, as well as Israeli political and religious leaders, paid tribute to Saperstein to mark his 50 years of service as director of the RAC. He did his best to deflect the praise for his accomplishments by crediting the Washington leaders and the grassroots members of the Reform movement for their work in making them possible. Saperstein also jokingly accused some of furtively watching the World Series on mute, even as the accolades for him kept coming.
“So many of you helped us support in 2000 the Sudan Peace Act, and (then-Congressman) Frank Wolf was a major player in making that happen, drafted in the center conference room by a strange-bedfellow, left-right coalition, we had put together: Catholic bishops, evangelicals, the Black caucus on Capitol Hill and the Reform Jewish movement,” he said during his onscreen comments.
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“And even with the sad recognition that after a decade of relative peace as a result of that, South Sudan has sunk into violence again,” he added, “your efforts contributed to saving the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not more.”
The tribute included letters sent by Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and a video from Bill Clinton, who told the honoree: “Your persistent advocacy helped to make me a better president and to make our country and our world fairer and stronger.”
Saperstein, who served on the NAACP board for dozens of years and was a founding board member of the Muslim advocates’ group Shoulder to Shoulder, has refused to give up on bipartisan and interfaith efforts that have grown more difficult amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“We have to learn to sit down and at least listen to each other and understand the pain that each side is living with,” he said in the interview. “And I’ve participated in a number of those listening sessions and they are deep and profound and moving on both sides.”
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said many in the Jewish world wondered if coalitions with non-Jews could continue or if they should “circle the wagons” and focus solely on their own protection and safety. Saperstein was not among them.
“David’s out there, continuing to lean into those relationships, whether it’s with the Muslim community, the Christian community,” said Jacobs. “Famously, he had the Dalai Lama at the Religious Action Center for a Passover Seder. He shows us how to do that with integrity.”
Imam Mohamed Magid, co-president of Religions for Peace, said Saperstein has shown courage as he has kept speaking “wisely and intelligently” even when others have chosen to be silent, including since Oct. 7.
“In many places, David will talk about his stance against all violence, whether it is Oct. 7 violence or the killing and the violence against the Palestinians, the loss of life,” said Magid.
Although some African American and Jewish American leaders have been divided on how the U.S. should move forward on policy regarding Gaza, Saperstein was part of an effort to bring them together for a February letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza and the release of hostages by Hamas.
“Rabbi Saperstein is at his heart a bridge builder and a peacemaker,” said the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network and another signatory on the letter, who has worked with him since the 1980s, when she was executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus and the two advocated together for affirmative action.
“To his nature, he’s always trying to find the common thread that brings people together, rather than divides them.”
Stanley Carlson-Thies, director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, a division of the Center for Public Justice, recalled similar action by Saperstein in the mid-2000s during legislative debates around employment nondiscrimination related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Saperstein strove to understand people with more politically and theologically conservative points of view, Carlson-Thies said.
“It’s clear that Rabbi Saperstein didn’t share the same view that I did about exactly what kind of religious exemption should apply if sexual orientation/gender identity were going to be protected,” said Carlson-Thies. “But he readily agreed to meet with a number of us.”
While the Employment Non-Discrimination Act never became law, Saperstein recalled in the interview how those coalitions across different political parties and faiths resulted in White House visits marking the legislative success of interfaith and bipartisan lobbying.
“I was at signings at the White House as much in the first term of the (George W.) Bush administration as I was in the first term of the Clinton administration,” Saperstein said.
Later in his career, Saperstein worked more directly with the Obama administration, serving on its President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and later as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, the first non-Christian to serve in the post.
Knox Thames, who was the State Department’s envoy on religious minorities while Saperstein was ambassador, said Saperstein’s dual lawyer-rabbi expertise was a key factor in the Obama administration’s 2016 declaration that the Islamic State group, the terrorist group also known as ISIS or Daesh, committed genocide in Iraq against Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims.
“He was the indispensable voice in making that case and pushing it through the system and overcoming the resistance and just leveraging all his experiences as a lawyer, a person of faith, a religious freedom expert, someone who’s also very knowledgeable about crimes against humanity and genocide in the international framework there,” said Thames. “That decision came about because of his involvement.”
It was the ambassador position that caused Saperstein to formally leave the RAC as he served the U.S. government — he was succeeded by his mentee Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner — but he returned as emeritus director and as senior adviser for strategy and policy at the end of the Obama administration.
In 2019, Saperstein and two of his friends, Magid and evangelical Pastor Bob Roberts, cofounded Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, which in some global settings has brought together Christian and Muslims in the same community who never knew each other and — with Saperstein’s presence — some who are meeting a rabbi for the first time. He goes on morning walks with Magid on those trips and has prompted Roberts to reflect on long-held beliefs.
“I’ve never been close to a rabbi like this so we’re talking about the Torah, talking about history and theology,” said Roberts of Saperstein. “He’s forced me to think deeply, to study what I really believe and why I believe it.”
Though Saperstein is committed to continuing the interfaith trio’s international work, he expects to soon spend more time with his family as he concludes his chairmanship of the U.S Transportation Department’s Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking.
“We just finished our report, just went up to the Hill,” he said. “We’re doing major speeches on it in January. So, I’m not going to take another government post. Of course, I wouldn’t be offered a government post in this next administration.”
He laughs but, continuing to display his diplomatic skills, noted he had already made this decision months before former President Donald Trump won a second term. “I actually said that before the election.”
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