Q+A With Rabbi David Saperstein

Social action connects young people to Judaism
Reprinted from the 9/2/05 issue of The Jewish Voice & Herald

By Jonathan Rubin

Editor’s note: Dubbed the “quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill” by the Washington Post, Rabbi David Saperstein heads the Religious Action Center, an arm of the Union of Reform Judaism based out of New York. During his 30-year tenure as director, he’s helped turn tikkun olam into a household concept, as well as lead the way in Jewish responses to human rights abuse, embryonic cell research, and other issues. He spoke with the Jewish Voice & Herald last week over his cell phone.

VH: Social action seems to be one of the few methods that brings young Jews into organized activities. Can you comment on this?

 DS: Most polls done over the past 30 years have shown that commitment to our [social action] programs is the most common indicator of Jewish identity in the United States — more than Israel or ritual observance or anything else.

You cannot talk about Jewish continuity without talking about the central role of social justice, both for its own sake and as a gateway to bring young people back to Jewish study and worship.

If the Judaism we offer our young people does not speak to the great moral issues of their lives and of the world, it will not be a Judaism that invokes their interests and their loyalty. It is precisely because Judaism has been a religion that looks not just inward but outward that it has been one of the secrets of Jewish survival in the face of unremitting hatred, persecution and the temptations of assimilation.

VH: So there is something fundamentally Jewish about social action?

DS: Responding to God’s call to be partners in creating a just and compassionate world is essential to Judaism. It was embodied by the prophets in the creation of the world’s first social welfare structure, or in the social justice institutions of a self-governing Jewish community. We have always had a major focus on social justice. It’s central to being a Jew.

VH: Those seem like mostly internal successes.

DS: Where Jews have lived in society, where they have been allowed to participate in greater society — Joseph in Egypt, the golden age of Spain, and much of the [modern] western world — they have been key figures in political and public affairs. In America, Jews have been disproportionately at the forefront of every social cause over the last 120 years.

One strand of Jewish social justice has been from the secular socialist institutions from Eastern Europe. Also, since the 1920s, the synagogue communities of America have been powerfully outspoken voices for social justice, the labor movement, child labor laws, general workers’ rights, and the civil rights movement.

VH: Numerous Jewish advocacy groups, from your organization to the Shalom Center to the American Jewish World Service, have achieved great success in alerting our communities to the deplorable conditions in Sudan. Why does this issue resonate so strongly with Jews?

DS: We Jews have been the quintessential victims in group hatred and persecution. We know what happens when good people stand idly by while evil is being done. One of the central lessons of the Holocaust is that we can never again be silent, so whenever genocidal activity takes place, it is not surprising that Jews are at the forefront of denouncing it. Darfur was a key manifestation of that.

VH:  Over the past year you’ve been featured in many national newspapers and appeared before Congress. Who are some interesting people you’ve met on the way?

DS: I came from a meeting this morning with Donald Rumsfeld and a group of religious leaders. We talked about the war in Iraq and the religious needs of our soldiers and incidences of anti-Semitism at the Air Force Academy, and the Muslim religious practices at Guantanamo Bay.

It was a productive meeting. We spoke about the Air Force guidelines that would really clarify how they should act on these issues, and training on religious issues. I asked him if he would encourage the other branches to undertake a similar kind of effort and he was quite receptive to that.

I met the Deputy Prime Minister of Sudan and invited him to speak at the Religious Action Center about the humanitarian disaster that preceded Darfur. I also met Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (from Ben and Jerry’s fame) when we got arrested protesting the atrocities in Darfur. We both grew up in my uncle’s synagogue.

VH: Some believe that social action, rather than making people stronger Jews, is actually leading people away from Jewish observance, that it has almost become a new religion in itself. Comments?

DS:  There are many different kinds of Jews in the world - Zionists, those who focus on worship as a part of their Jewish identity, and others. [Social action] is an opportunity to keep many people who normally go away from the Jewish community connected to us.

We should be proud of what young people do even as their only expression of Judaism, and if they have not yet made the link back to the Jewish community we have more work to do and a wonderful opportunity to involve them.

VH: What are the next projects you’re hoping to tackle?

DS: We’re very proud of our programs that bring about 1,500 high school and college students that focus on the links between Jewish ideals and democratic values. We have to turn hundreds of kids away each year, and we want to find a way to expand these programs. We’re going to be launching a nationwide effort of a way of approaching poverty and minimum wage [through] our congregations as well.

Of course, with the pullout from Gaza, there’s the question of whether or not the peace process can get back on track, and it can’t happen without the U.S. government being a big facilitator. We are working very closely with the administration on this.

Finally, there is a major battle looming over fundamental rights in America. Today we are very comfortable and secure, and it’s easy to assume that this has to continue forever. If the religious right and other extreme elements of the American community succeed in cutting back on women’s rights, including choice, or the wall between church and state, or civil or minority rights, our children will know a much different American than we have been blessed with.