Newsweek's Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America

Yeah, here we go again:

Here is the second annual version of the list—generated by Michael Lynton, (chairman & CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment), Gary Ginsberg, (executive VP, global marketing and corporate affairs, News Corp.) and Jay Sanderson, (CEO and executive producer, JTN/JTN Productions)—of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. In the fall of 2006, the friends, interested in the future of American Jewry and the evolving role of the rabbi, started a conversation that eventually became "the list." The machers ranked the rabbis based on the following unscientific criteria:

• Are they known nationally/internationally? (20 points)
• Do they have political/social influence? (20 points)
• Do they have a media presence? (10 points)
• Are they leaders within their communities? (10 points)
• Are they considered leaders in Judaism or their movements? (10 points)
• Size of their constituency (10 points)
• Have they made an impact on Judaism in their career? (10 points)
• Have they made a greater impact beyond the Jewish community and their Rabbinical training? (10 points)

With the exception of the last criteria, being a rabbi is irrelevant to being rated on the list.You can read the list here.

Meanwhile, under "Is Your Rabbi Hot or Not?" Lisa Miller writes that new criteria were introduced due to criticism:

Mostly, though, the criticism fell into two categories. One group of critics derided the appearance of Yehuda Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles (of Madonna fame), at No. 4 on the list. "Yehuda Berg? WTF?" wrote a commentator on the Web site Jewschool. The second criticism was weightier. All across the Internet, people wondered out loud whether "influence" was an appropriate measure for a rabbi. The machershad ranked rabbis according to their ability to raise money, publicize causes, sell books or chat on television news shows—not according to their ability to lead, inspire, teach or console.

Luckily (or unluckily), the machers took this criticism to heart. This year, in addition to their updated “influential” list, they have produced a list of the top 25 pulpit rabbis in America, rabbis they believe have what it takes to lead American Jews into the 21st century.

This time the criteria are:

• Ability to inspire congregation through scholarship and oratory
• Success in growing and expanding congregation
• Community leadership and innovation
• Ability to meet spiritual and personal needs and goals of his/her congregation
• Leadership within denominational movement

Personally, both lists leave me uninspired.

To put it simply, if such a list uses the exact same criteria for Orthodox rabbis as for Conservative and Reform, then the people making the list just don't get it.

Nice gimmick though. Can't wait to see what they think up next year...

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