DENVER, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, will deliver the invocation at the
Democratic National Convention Thursday, August 28, at Denver's INVESCO Field,
the night that Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to accept the Democratic
nomination.
"I am deeply honored to have been invited to offer a religious voice at
this celebration of American democracy; the opportunity to do so at an evening
of such historic significance to our nation is especially meaningful,"
Saperstein said.
At the Conventions, as at so many other public events, the invocation
serves as an opportunity for religious leaders to raise up in a non-partisan
manner the moral challenges facing the country and to pray that the country's
leaders have the wisdom and courage to resolve them.
"We are honored that a representative of the Reform Movement was selected
to give the invocation the night the first African-American accepts the
nomination to the highest office in our land," said Peter Weidhorn, chairman
of the Union for Reform Judaism. "We hope that leaders of our Movement, the
largest segment of American Jewry, will likewise be among those religious
voices invited to be heard at the Republican Convention."
An array of prominent religious leaders, including the heads of several
Jewish, Christian and Muslim denominations and national organizations, are
participating in both conventions. Saperstein commended both parties for
welcoming religious leaders to the conventions. The DNC and Sen. Obama had
significantly expanded both outreach to the faith communities and the
visibility of the faith communities at the convention, including the decision
to begin the Democratic convention with a public interfaith service of
Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.
Saperstein, who is a leader in a number of interfaith and public interest
coalitions, has worked with a broad array of leaders from both parties in
forging coalitions to address pressing issues such as poverty, health care,
hunger, the environment, Middle East Peace and Israel's security. He has led
the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism for 34 years, providing a voice
for Reform Judaism in Washington. He currently co-chairs the Coalition to
Preserve Religious Liberty, comprised of over 40 national religious
denominations, educational and religious freedom organizations, and serves on
the boards of numerous national organizations including the NAACP and People
For the American Way. In 1999, Rabbi Saperstein was elected as the first
Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom created by a
unanimous vote of Congress.
An attorney, Rabbi Saperstein teaches seminars in both First Amendment
Church-State Law and in Jewish Law at Georgetown University Law School.
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism not only advocates on a
broad range of social justice issues but provides extensive legislative and
programmatic materials used by synagogues, federations and Jewish community
relations councils nationwide, and coordinates social action education
programs that train nearly 3,000 Jewish adults, youth, rabbinic and lay
leaders each year.
For more information on the work of the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism, see www.rac.org.
SOURCE Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Alix Fried of Rabinowitz-Dorf Communications, +1-202-265-3000, or
+1-202-215-9260 {cell}, or +1-202-265-1212 {fax}, or alix@rabinowitz-dorf.com,
for Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
