Featuring the RAC…

This post is part of a weekly feature on RACblog. Check in at the end of the week for a roundup of stories in which the RAC has been featured!

On Tuesday night, Rabbi Saperstein was honored with the role of panelist at the annual Notre Dame Forum. This year’s Forum was themed “A More Perfect Union: The Future of America’s Democracy.” While the theme of the Forum will inform many programs throughout the year, Rabbi Saperstein sat on the opening panel entitled “Conviction and Compromise: Being a Person of Faith in a Liberal Democracy” with some of the nation’s most prominent religious leaders. The panel dealt with themes including religious liberty, the role of religion in elections and the role of faith in public policy.

Other panelists included: Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good; Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz, archbishop of Louisville; Elder Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Rick Warren, founding pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.

The South Bend Tribune covered the event, noting that Rabbi Saperstein emphasized the importance of the separation of church and state to the functioning of our democracy.

Rabbi Saperstein also published an article in Sh’ma Journal this week entitled Judaism as a Source of Democratic Thought. Check out this informative and relevant article, which details how four key values necessary for democracy are found in Judaism’s view of human society.

In the Washington Post, Rabbi Saperstein bids farewell to John Carr on the occasion of his retirement. Carr is known in D.C. as “the most important policy adviser to the country’s Catholic bishops.”

Finally, Rabbi Saperstein joined influential government and religious leaders at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention as a speaker in a plenary session about the ways in which faith-based organizations can partner to combat common concerns, including poverty, religious discrimination and human rights abuses.