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Big Difference: Brownback Succeeds Saperstein As Religious Freedom Envoy

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By Nathan Guttman January 29, 2018

It took the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence, but on Wednesday the Senate finally approved, in the narrowest of margins, Sam Brownback as the State Department’s next ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Immediately after, Brownback announced his resignation from his post as governor of Kansas.

Brownback will fill the position previously held by Rabbi David Saperstein. And while both have spent their lives working for religious freedom, Brownback and Saperstein could not be farther apart in the way they interpret the term. For a comparison, click on the graphic below.

Laura E. Adkins created the graphic that accompanies this text.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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