Rabbi Sergio Bergman, wearing a colorful yarmulke, was sworn in to Argentina’s National Parliament Wednesday on a Tanach when he swore the oath of office before “God, the motherland and the sacred scriptures of the Bible, the Tanach.”
Bergman, the first rabbi to take office as a national legislator, was one of Argentina’s 127 newly elected legislators sworn in Wednesday at an opening ceremony in the Lower House of the National Parliament. His original text was an unprecedented formula that he prepared.
He is believed to be the only rabbi elected to a national parliament outside of Israel.
Bergman, 51, is also the senior rabbi of Argentina’s oldest congregation, Congregacion Israelita Argentina, which marked its 150th year last month with a series of celebrations, including the launching of the rabbi’s book about Pope Francis.
The rabbi-legislator 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.