When he takes the oath of office in December as a new member of Argentina’s lower house of parliament, Rabbi Sergio Bergman will eschew the Christian Bible used by other legislators in favor of the Five Books of Moses.
Bergman, whose PRO party won 34.5 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections on Oct. 27, is believed to be the only rabbi seated in a national parliament outside Israel.
PRO, which Bergman leads, edged the runner-up UNEN party, which captured just over 32 percent, making Bergman the first Argentine rabbi to win a seat as a national lawmaker.
Trained in biochemistry and pharmacology, Bergman abandoned a career with a German pharmaceutical company for the rabbinate at the urging of his wife, Gabriela.
“Let’s follow your vocation,” he said she advised him. “If then you find that rabbinical work doesn’t fit, you can return to your profession as a pharmacist. But I don’t want to see you in your 40s unhappy with your life.”
Now 51, Bergman has four children, is the author of five books and is recognized internationally. He founded a network of Jewish schools and educational projects that includes a gay alliance and a rural farm.
In May he received the Micah Award from the World Union for Progressive Judaism for his commitment to social justice at the organization’s convention in Jerusalem.
But he is also recognized beyond the Jewish community as a leading thinker on the issues of spirituality and interfaith activism.
Pope Francis, then Buenos Aires Archbishop Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, wrote in a prologue to Bergman’s 2008 book “Argentina Ciudadana,” or “Argentina Citizen,” that the rabbi uses the Bible “as an inspiration to build a basis of our civic behavior and elaborates the fundamentals of a civil spirituality.”
Bergman launched his political career in 2011, when he was tapped by Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri to lead his PRO party’s list for the municipal legislature. Among 10 parties, Bergman’s was the leading vote getter, tripling the vote total of the second-place finisher.
As a legislator, Bergman employed unorthodox methods to reduce tensions in the city, organizing a day of meditation for legislative employees and installing a popcorn machine in his office.
Throughout his political career, Bergman has not hid his Jewishness. Indeed, he has celebrated it, wearing his colorful yarmulke at his public appearances.
In the 2011 election, he wanted to be listed on the ballot as “Rabbi Sergio Bergman.” Opponents challenged the bid, and a court ruled eventually that while Bergman might be well-known as a rabbi, his title suggests positive connotations that are inappropriate for an election ballot.
In a country only three decades removed from dictatorship, the acknowledgment was seen as a democratic advance.
Argentina is “in a deep crisis of values,” Bergman told JTA. “I believe that Torah can also be taught in the legislature. I’m against the union of state and religion. I’m in favor of the separation of church and state, but also in favor of putting deep values in politics.”
Bergman dismisses concerns about embracing such a high public profile in a Jewish community that still lives in the shadow of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 84 and injured hundreds.
“I’m not worried about prejudices; in fact non-Jews love me more than Jews,” Bergman told JTA. “If the society knows us better, the level of anti-Semitism will become lower. I’m not sure that this is the right idea, but I’m sure that this is my objective.
“What I can guarantee is that I can be criticized for many things, but not for being a rabbi. I receive criticisms that I’m on the right or that I ask for law and order, but nobody criticizes me for being Jewish. If I am attacked for being a rabbi, the first to come out to defend me are the non-Jews.”
A fellow alumnus of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, Daniel Fainstein, said much has changed since Argentina restored democracy in 1983, and Jews are now much more visible in the public arena.
“For some people, this situation can potentially increase anti-Semitism through the high visibility of a political figure who is a rabbi,” Fainstein said. “For others, it’s a symbol of the full integration of the Jews in the national society.
“On the other hand, as a committed citizen, Rabbi Bergman has the right to be active in the political contest, choosing the political party he likes.”
Bergman has an active presence online, with more than 65,000 followers on Facebook and more than 35,000 on Twitter. According to his most recent financial disclosure, his personal wealth amounts to approximately $500,000.
Analysts say Bergman’s political future is linked to the fate of his patron Macri, who has announced he will run for president in 2015. If Macri wins, there is speculation that Bergman could be given any number of plum positions, from minister of education to mayor of Buenos Aires.
But in the short term, Bergman’s success hinges on the success of an initiative he is championing as a legislator: the rollback of Argentina’s agreement to cooperate with Iran in investigating the 1994 AMIA bombing and the impeachment of the country’s Jewish foreign minister, Hector Timmerman, who negotiated it.
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