Death leaves void on religious freedom panel: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
The director of a unique federal panel charged with promoting religious freedom worldwide has died after a struggle with cancer.
Joseph Crapa, 63, executive director of the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, died October 25. A onetime high-level staffer to congressional Democrats, Crapa was respected by Republican and Democratic appointees alike.
Crapa had directed the panel’s staff since 2002, leading it from an oddly situated fledgling federal agency to one widely respected—and in some cases feared—by foreign-policy experts at home and abroad.