Newsweek’s Top Rabbis and Congregations

Newsweek’s new list of top rabbis and congregations is out:

Created, maintained and revised by three Jewish media tycoons — Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Michael Lynton, News Corp. executive vice president Gary Ginsberg and Jewish Television Network CEO Jay Sanderson — the list ranks the 50 most influential rabbis in
America based on an unscientific algorithm.

America’s 25 Most Vibrant Congregations

50 Influential Rabbis.  Here are the top 15:

1. David Saperstein (2008 Ranking #5)  Saperstein jumps to the top spot because of his role as
Washington insider and political powerbroker and Friend of Obama.  He is the Director of the
Religious
Action
Center and the Co-Chair of the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty.

2. Marvin Hier (2008 Ranking #1)  Hier is a major player in national and world politics and has built one of the world’s leading human rights organizations, the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

3. Mark Charendoff (2008 Ranking #10)  Charendoff is President of the Jewish Funders Network, an international organization of family foundations, public philanthropies and individual funders.

4. Yehuda Krinsky (2008 Ranking #4)  Krinsky’s impact continues to grow as the global leader of the Chabad movement.

5. David Ellenson, Ph.D. (2008 Ranking #8)  Ellenson is charged with training tomorrow’s leaders as the President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the nation’s oldest institution of higher Jewish education.

6. Robert Wexler, Ph.D. (2008 Ranking #3)  Wexler is the President of American Jewish University.

7. Shmuley Boteach(2008 Ranking #9)  Boteach calls himself “
America‘s Rabbi.” He continues to promote himself and his perspective on his daily radio show, on television and in his long list of books, including the recently published “The Broken Male and How to Fix Him.”

8. Eric Yoffie (2008 Ranking #2)  Yoffie is the leader of the Reform movement, representing 1.5 million Jews in over 900 synagogues.  He has pioneered dialogue programs with Christians and Muslims nationwide. 

9. Uri D. Herscher, Ph.D. (2008 Ranking #6)  Herscher is the Founder and President of the
Skirball
Cultural
Center.

10. Irwin Kula (2008 Ranking #7)  The Co-President of CLAL and bestselling author continues to raise his profile nationally as an innovator committed to reshaping America’s spiritual landscape. 

11. David Wolpe (2008 Ranking #12) Wolpe is considered one of the most dynamic pulpit rabbis in
America

12. Peter J. Rubinstein (2008 Ranking #15)  Rubinstein is the spiritual leader of
New York‘s Central Synagogue. 

13. Yehuda Berg (2008 Ranking #11)  Berg is the world’s most popular authority on the Kabbalah. 

14. Norman Lamm (2008 Ranking #43)  Lamm is Chancellor of
Yeshiva
University. 

15. Joseph Telushkin (2008 Ranking #21)  Telushkin is a best-selling author and speaker. 

Jeffrey Goldberg’s “Annotated Guide” to the list is here.