Biden Reappoints Kleinbaum to Religious Post
Local out lesbian rabbi will advise the administration on religious freedom
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
President Joe Biden has
reappointed out lesbian
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
as a commissioner
of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF), which is an advisory
post pertaining to issues of religious
freedom.
In her new role, Rabbi Kleinbaum,
who leads Manhattan’s
LGBTQ-friendly synagogue, Congregation
Beit Simchat Torah
(CBST), will recommend international
policy changes to the Biden
administration, the secretary of
state, and Congress. She will also
monitor global religious freedom
issues and compile these fi ndings
into USCIRF’s annual report.
Kleinbaum previously served
in the same role when she was
fi rst nominated by Senator Chuck
Sharon Kleinbaum has been selected to rejoin the US Commission on International Freedom.
Schumer in 2019, though the commission’s
presidential appointments
don’t need Senate approval.
The Biden administration also
DONNA ACETO
appointed Khizr Khan, founder
of the Constitutional Literacy and
National Unity Project, to the same
commission.
RELIGION
Kleinbaum said she is prepared
to fi ght and protect the rights of all
individuals regardless of their religion
in the US and globally.
“I am deeply honored to be appointed
by President Biden to the
United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom,” she
said in a written statement. “The
issues facing our world around
the role that religion plays in both
liberating people and oppressing
people is at the center of so many
struggles for human rights.”
Kleinbaum’s wife, Randi Weingarten
— who serves as president
of the American Federation of
Teachers — also took to Twitter to
applaud her partner’s new role.
“I’m so incredibly proud of my
wife @Skleinbaum,”
Kleinbaum joined CBST in 1992
during the HIV/AIDS crisis and
has served as an activist voice on
a range of issues.
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