Rabbi David Saperstein on democracy, diplomacy and hopes for bipartisanship

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Given his decades-long experience in interfaith relations, religious freedom, and faith and politics, Rabbi David Saperstein is often sought out for speeches and advice.

In the wake of the November election, the director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism was invited to speak about the implications of the incoming Trump administration at a dialogue co-convened by the National Council of Churches and the National Council of Synagogues. He voiced particular concern about what he sees as diminished bipartisanship and dialogue across lines of difference.

“We’ve lost a lot of that in this hyper-partisanized, divisive atmosphere,” he said in a follow-up interview with RNS.

“And I pray for both President Trump to kind of see the light on this, but for other political leaders in both parties to recognize that the destiny of humankind depends on recapturing some of that ability to find common ground and to work together and to make compromises in order to not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”

Saperstein, 77, talked with RNS about his work as a mentor to future rabbis and lobbyists, how his time on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom informed his work as a religious freedom ambassador, and his hopes for the future of religious social action.

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The interview was edited for length and clarity.

At “the RAC,” you have been known for training adults as well as teens — some of whom turned out to be future rabbis — on the connections between Judaism and social justice. What has been the essence of what you want them to learn?

We want them to learn the Jewish roots and Jewish perspectives on some of the great moral issues they face in their lives, and in the world they’re inheriting from us. We want them to have the advocacy skills, whether they agree with our positions or not, to be effective and value the policy positions they hold, and we want them to understand the rights embodied in our First Amendment, and that the success of our democratic experiment depends on every citizen stepping up to the plate to help shape this country and to live up to its ideals.

Are you concerned about the state of democracy?

Profoundly concerned. It is the most precarious moment, certainly in our lifetimes, and I think more accurately, since the 1920s, the most precarious moment in terms of the survival of the democratic ideals, modalities, rights and freedoms that the American experience has been dedicated to.

Given your veteran status, what is your answer to those who ask you, “What do we do now?”

We clearly have the ability, beginning with the advocacy with this new Congress and this new administration, to try and check some of the excesses that we have, to try and rebuild the bipartisan coalition — may not be a large group in the Republican configuration right now — who is willing to challenge efforts that people fear will come from this administration that would damage democracy and our democratic institutions. But I think there are enough that we will be able to prevent some of the damage that many talking heads are warning about, and we’ll mobilize for the next election to get people who are more broadly committed to our democratic norms.

At the same time, we have to recognize there are enormous challenges that transcend our focus on the incoming administration that we must come to grips with. In other words, climate change imperils life as we know it on Earth, the lingering impact of racism and sexism in America, of suspicion of minority groups, of gay people in America, religious minorities in America, the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia. All of these have been perhaps exacerbated by this incoming administration. Those concerns represent much larger trends we have to be finding ways to fight for, even if it’s done in the civil society sector right now and can’t be done as effectively as we want in the government sector right now.

You prayed at the Democratic National Convention when President Barack Obama was becoming a presidential nominee, and you’ve worked with former Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Frank Wolf on religious freedom. How do you view bipartisanship, and do you have any hope for its success in the future?

Whichever administration is in power, and whoever controls the House and the Senate, we’ve been able to continue to work together on a number of these issues. People would be surprised, under the surface, how many times we’re able to actually get some things done. You can only go so long before you deal with climate change. When you begin to talk of rounding up millions of (immigrant) people, the facts are going to make that impossible. And then you have to look for other options. That’s going to require bipartisan cooperation.

But the breakdown of bipartisanship is really one of the most alarming trends in American political life and cultural life. If you think about it, it’s hard to think of any great achievement for social justice in the 20th century that did not happen because of a bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill. The labor movement, the New Deal finally began to deal with the Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, the women’s rights movement, the environmental movement, the Great Society — all of these had bipartisan support and the support of multiracial, multireligious, multiethnic coalitions of decency throughout the country.

Thomas Farr, from left, the first director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and ambassadors-at-large for international religious freedom Rabbi David Saperstein, Suzan Johnson Cook and Sam Brownback attend an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act on Nov. 9, 2018, in Washington. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)

As the first chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom — this independent, bipartisan body that strove to deal with egregious situations — you oversaw reports every year on the need for change in places across the globe. What change did you see in that role?

There are a number of ways that change for the good was reflected. Because that report is done every year, somebody in every embassy — and a number of the larger consulates — has to be assigned to actually draft the report. In order to do that, they actually have to reach out to a lot of these persecuted minority religious groups or sects who, before this process began, had no one to go to. But now they actually know somebody at the American Embassy they can call, urging them to press the government to rectify a particular crisis that arises.

Is there an example of how your time at USCIRF informed what you were able to accomplish as an ambassador?

It occurred to me, after a while of what I learned at USCIRF, that particularly in autocratic countries, if the ministry of internal security didn’t sign off on (addressing a religious freedom problem), it wasn’t going to happen. They’re worried about minority groups that they don’t have control over becoming agitated, extremists capturing that agitation, that kind of thing. The plight of minorities is often seen by governments through a national security prism. So I began to ask for meetings with the minister of the interior or security minister. It really helped in a number of situations to get better laws passed, or to get individual prisoners (of conscience) out.

Is there something you may not have accomplished, but you wish you could have, or any particular disappointment?

I spent decades fighting for universal health care, and while the (Affordable Care Act) was a major step forward, bringing it to millions who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks, we’re nowhere near where we should be in universal health care.

But you know, with all of these problems we face, we are the first generation in all of human history that actually produces enough food to feed every human being on Earth. We’re the first generation that can wipe out diseases that have plagued humanity from time immemorial. We can educate every child, including every girl, and that makes such a difference for the economic strength and the stability of communities and countries. A failure now is a failure of moral vision and political will. But we’re alive at a time where we can make those prophetic dreams of that world of justice and peace real, if we are determined and willing to do it in a way that no generation before us could do.

And in a world in which you can do almost everything, what you should do — the moral question — is the most important question facing humanity. On that the religious communities of the world have a profound and urgent contribution to make.

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