Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sam Brownback Ambassador For Religious Freedom — Succeeds Rabbi Saperstein

Kansas governor Sam Brownback will get a reprieve from his political troubles in his home state as he takes on the position of ambassador at large for international religious freedom at the State Department.

Brownback, who also served in the past in the House and the Senate, was tapped for the job by President Trump Wednesday and now awaits Senate confirmation.

In a tweet, Brownback said that “Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause.”

He succeeds Rabbi David Saperstein, a leader of the activist Reform Action Center who became the first non-Christian to hold the post.

In his new post, Brownback will be in charge of reporting on religious freedom problems across the world and leading the diplomatic effort to resolve these issues.

Brownback’s popularity at home has reached an all time low, as the fiscal conservative, tax-cutting governor faced criticism over his policies that forced the state to cut services.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.