Famed Rabbi Lives in D.C., Registers in N.Y.
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A prominent rabbi and lobbyist who lives in Washington, D.C., David Saperstein, registered to vote at a New York City office address, according to records on file at the New York City and District of Columbia boards of elections.
Rabbi Saperstein is director of the Washington-based Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, a lobbying and activism arm of the New York-based Union for Reform Judaism. The Union describes itself as “the central body of the Reform movement in North America” and claims to represent more than 900 Reform congregations.
According to Rabbi Saperstein’s biography on the center’s Web site, he has occupied his current post for 30 years, is chairman of the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, and “serves on the boards of numerous national organizations including the NAACP and People for the American Way.” In 1999, Congress installed Rabbi Saperstein as the first chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The Religious Action Center also identifies Rabbi Saperstein as the lobbyist who “represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the administration” and as a lawyer who teaches seminars in First Amendment church state law and in Jewish law at Georgetown University’s law school.
Despite his abundant activities in Washington, Rabbi Saperstein affirmed to the New York City Board of Elections that his primary residence is in Manhattan.
On October 10, 2000, which that year was 28 days before Election Day, Rabbi Saperstein registered to vote in New York, listing the “Address Where You Live” as “633 3rd Ave 7th Floor.” The space in which he could have specified a mailing address that was different from his residential address was left blank.
The seventh floor of 633 Third Ave. houses offices of the Union for Reform Judaism. The phone number Rabbi Saperstein provided as his “Home Telephone” connects to the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, another arm of the Union.
In an affidavit that appears at the bottom of his voter registration form, Rabbi Saperstein swore or affirmed that he “will have lived in the county, city, or village for at least 30 days before the election,” and that “the above information is true.”
The affidavit concludes: “I understand that that if it is not true I can be convicted and fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to four years.”
According to records on file at the District of Columbia’s Board of Elections and Ethics, Rabbi Saperstein has been a registered voter since March 1998 with a residence in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Washington.
A spokeswoman for the Religious Action Center, Alexis Rice, said yesterday that the rabbi was on vacation with his family in South Carolina and could not be contacted by The New York Sun for comment. Ms. Rice said she had spoken with Rabbi Saperstein about the newspaper’s inquiry, however, and she said of the double registration: “He is a native New Yorker who in tended to return to New York. He was told by New York election officials it was appropriate to use a New York address, which he understood to be his office address for registration purposes.”
When he registered to vote in New York, Rabbi Saperstein requested that he be sent an absentee ballot for the general election to 2027 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington – the address of the Religious Action Center’s offices.
The director of New York City’s Board of Elections, John Ravitz, said yesterday that he doubted Rabbi Saperstein had been misled by board officials. Board representatives “clearly would not have given them that information,” Mr. Ravitz said.
“The form speaks for itself,” he said, and “the rules are very clear” on residency requirements for registration.
According to press accounts, Rabbi Saperstein is an enthusiastic supporter of President and Senator Clinton, and an enrolled Democrat in both New York and Washington. In the 2000 election, Mrs. Clinton was the Democratic nominee for Senate from New York.
Ms. Rice said yesterday that while the rabbi had requested a ballot, he did not vote in the 2000 election in New York. Rabbi Saperstein’s voter history on file with the New York City Board of Elections does not show that he has ever voted in the city.
The voter history on file for Rabbi Saperstein with the Washington Board of Elections shows that he did not vote in the 2000 election there, and that, during the period of his enrollment as a voter, he cast ballots only in September and November 2002.
Mr. Ravitz told the Sun yesterday that swearing to a false address on a voter registration form is a count of perjury. For the Board of Elections to take action in Rabbi Saperstein’s case, he said: “Someone would have to challenge this voter’s validity, and the commissioners would have to vote to send it to the district attorney.”
A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Sherry Hunter, said yesterday that for there to be an investigation of the rabbi’s voter affidavit, “Somebody would have to bring charges.”
Ms. Hunter said that while it was “inappropriate to speculate,” the punishment prosecutors might seek in connection with a false voter affidavit would depend upon the results of an investigation, and whether the investigation determined the possible perjury to be an alleged misdemeanor or felony. The statute of limitations on misdemeanor counts of perjury, Ms. Hunter said, is three years from the time the offense was committed. Felony perjury, she said, carries a five-year statute of limitations.