Distinguished Service Award to Rabbi Robert J. Saks

Presented by former GLAA President Barrett L. Brick

GLAA 38th Anniversary Reception
Washington Plaza Hotel
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

It has been said that the goal of religion is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Our next honoree has devoted his life to doing just that. Rabbi Robert J. Saks has served as rabbi of DC’s Congregation Bet Mishpachah for eighteen years. But his support for the gay community preceded this. As Executive Director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Student Foundation at the University of Maryland, Rabbi Saks was a voice for acceptance of gay Jews, inviting members of Bet Mishpachah to speak to Hillel gatherings. I was one of these invited speakers, and it was thanks to this that I first met Rabbi Saks, and began to develop one of the most rewarding friendships of my life.

As Bet Mishpachah’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Saks has helped to enhance and expand the congregation’s educational and religious programs. He has provided pastoral counseling and has performed various life cycle and ritual ceremonies for members of the congregation. Rabbi Saks represents Bet Mishpachah and the interests of gay and lesbian Jews before rabbinical organizations, government bodies, and the community at large. Years ago, for example, he provided testimony in the complaint of Roland Pool and Michael Geller against the Boy Scouts before the DC Human Rights Commission. For a number of years now, Rabbi Saks has been a strong voice in support of equal marriage rights for lesbians and gay men.

Rabbi Saks’ talents have benefited the area community in many ways. He has been part of the Maalot Summer Institute in Jewish Music, Liturgy, and Ceremonial Arts. He is a director of the Washington Jewish Healing Network. He has long been involved with Jews United for Justice and is a member of the Workers Rights Board of Washington, fighting for living wage bills and calling upon area governments to address unemployment and underemployment in better ways.

Speaking of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, I am reminded of these words of Rabbi Saks, from a sermon that can be found on Equality Maryland’s Pride in Faith website:

Who today is a Sodomite?

Someone who offers no shelter to vulnerable wayfarers.

Someone who is part of the mob threatening the weak and unprotected.

A Sodomite attacks the weakest elements in society, the least protected, the most vulnerable. The abomination they commit is social and economic cruelty and physical violence. … In our society, the Sodomites are the ones who do not offer homosexuals and other marginalized groups shelter, and who fail to protect them from the assaults they face in so many ways.

Those are the words of one who speaks truth to power, with the voice of a prophet. It is my great privilege to present GLAA’s Distinguished Service Award to Rabbi Robert J. Saks.