Historian Marc B. Shapiro responded to my inquiry: “I am not sure what they mean by “important”. Is important the same as influential? They have many of the big ones, but are also missing some. How about the Satmar Rebbes, who have a very large following. I think R. Herschel Schachter has to be at the top of the list if we want to know who is the most influential Orthodox in the Orthodox world. However, he doesn’t have influence in the Jewish community at large, while Krinsky, Hier et al do.”
Here are the Orthodox selections in Newsweek’s list of the top 50 rabbis in America:
Orthodox selections:
2. Yehuda Krinsky (Orthodox)
No. 1 the last two years, Krinsky is still at the top of his game,
running the sprawling and influential Chabad movement, though not
without a few hiccups this past year. Dogged by pesky lawsuits and
still embroiled in a decades-long litigation to reclaim the late Rebbe
Menachem Schneerson’s collection of books and manuscripts from a
Russian government that has refused to return them for 70 years (the
lawsuit took a particularly nasty turn this year when the Russians
retaliated with an art embargo of the U.S.), Krinsky nonetheless
remains among the most influential clergy spreading a brand of Judaism
to the furthest reaches of the globe. Chabad opened a new center in
Portugal this past year, the 78th country it can now boast a presence
in among the thousands of centers it has opened in the past few
decades.” They even have outposts in such unlikely places as Harlem,
the Bowery, and Phnom Penh. One hundred twenty new educational
institutions were established in 2011, and Chabad’s conference for
female shluchot (emissaries sent out to spread the message) drew more
than 3,000 women in February. (2011: #1)
8. Marvin Hier & Abraham Cooper (Orthodox)
We’ve grouped Hier and Cooper because these rabbis represent the same
L.A.-based Jewish human-rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, a crucial watchdog of anti-Semitism throughout the world.
Founder and dean Hier, who is also a member of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences and produces films on Jewish subjects,
recently called upon the Obama administration to investigate the
display of the SS flag by American Marine snipers. (The Marines
maintained the soldiers didn’t realize the significance of the
double-S symbol.) Abraham Cooper, who meets regularly with
international leaders, recently trained the spotlight on Holocaust
denial. Hier and Cooper issued a statement about Iran in February
saying, “This is the first time since the Nazis’ Final Solution that
such explicit plans for a genocide against the Jewish people is being
promoted.” (2011: #5, #28)
11. Avi Weiss (Modern Orthodox)
Richard
Senior rabbi at Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, Weiss is considered the
father of a brand of Orthodoxy he calls “Open Orthodoxy,” which
maintains strict observance while also expanding its definition. He
founded Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT), whose graduates continue to earn
impressive placements in shuls, schools, and organizations, though
some face resistance from the old guard who challenge YCT’s Orthodox
credentials. He will soon face the controversial question of what to
call the women graduating from Yeshiva Maharat—the second seminary
he’s founded and the first for Orthodox women spiritual leaders. Known
for his decades of brash activism, Weiss was arrested last fall in
front of the U.N. while protesting the Palestinian statehood bid.
(2011: #12)
12. Hershel Schachter (Orthodox)
Considered one of the few living sages for his sweeping expertise in
Talmud and a beloved teacher by many, Schachter is widely thought to
have pushed Yeshiva University to the right religiously, socially, and
politically. He is against various forms of modernity in the name of
preserving rigorous Halacha (Jewish law), opposing organ donation for
brain death, not recognizing female prayer groups, and resisting the
initiatives of his fellow YU alum Avi Weiss (#11) to foster women as
spiritual leaders. Schachter is a dominant, intimidating force behind
the RCA (see Goldin, #16), but his sense of humor was glimpsed this
year when he made a brief cameo appearance in one of the hip
Maccabeats’ viral music videos. (2011: #14)
16. Shmuel Goldin (Orthodox)
This year Goldin became head of Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic
association, the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America), whose membership
has clashed recently over whether women can be considered clergy and
whether only a select list of Orthodox rabbis can perform authentic
conversions. Known has a conciliator amidst extremists in the RCA (and
expected to use his new position to staunch the right-wing drift),
Goldin has, for 28 years, served Congregation Ahavath Torah in
Englewood, N.J. He also teaches at Yeshiva University, a feeder to the
RCA, which has turned its back on Avi Weiss’s graduates from YCT (see
#11) who are refused membership. (NEW)
21. Shmuel Kamenetsky (Haredi)
The vice president of the Haredi umbrella organization, Agudath Israel
of America’s Supreme Council of Rabbinic Sages, Kamenetsky has
enormous sway when it comes to the official Haredi position on social
and political issues or halachic questions. Last fall he urged the
rabbinate to sign a “Declaration on the Torah Approach to
Homosexuality,” which advocates “reparative therapy,” and last July,
while the tragic disappearance of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky was in its
second day in Brooklyn, he said that sexual abuse should be reported
not to the police but to a rabbi, who would then decide whether to
call the cops. (After an uproar, he softened this position.) The dean
of the Talmudical Yeshiva in Philadelphia, Kamenetsky is one of the
most esteemed gedolim—arbiters of Jewish law in the ultra-Orthodox
world. (NEW)
24. Asher Lopatin (Modern Orthodox)
unknown
The rabbi at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in
Chicago known especially for its famous member Rahm Emanuel, Lopatin
plans to make aliyah (emigrate permanently to Israel) this summer to
“build a pluralistic and diverse community in the Negev.” (Thirty
families from his congregation have already made the move at his
urging, but Lopatin was delayed because his 9-year-old daughter faced
a life-threatening illness best treated in the U.S..) Lopatin has
always been a bit of an amalgam: he mixes his Yeshiva University
education with his M.Phil. in medieval Arabic thought from Oxford
University, earned while on a Rhodes fellowship. He also writes about
hot-button issues such as feminism, conversion, and the Arab Spring
for Morethodoxy, a liberal Orthodox blog on which male rabbis write
alongside Sara Hurwitz (#32). Recently he blogged a whirlwind
interfaith tour from Jakarta, through Dubai and Amman, to Jerusalem.
(2011: #21)
26. Haskel Lookstein (Orthodox)
The rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump, Lookstein has pledged to rebuild
his historic synagogue, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, after a
devastating fire last summer. Known for his irreverence when it comes
to towing the Orthodox party line, this longtime principal of
Manhattan’s Ramaz School, recently came down hard on the
ultra-Orthodox in Israel who terrorized 8-year-old Naama Margolese on
her way to school. He called it a “tragedy in the form of the
increasing demonization of women by extremists in the Haredi community
and, unfortunately, in a broader segment of religious society.” He
turned the mirror back on his own community, and many consider him a
rare combination of modern thinking and unimpeachable scholarship.
(2011: #30)
27. Arthur Schneier (Orthodox)
AP Photo
Schneier, a Holocaust survivor, just celebrated 50 years at the helm
of New York’s Orthodox Park East Synagogue. (New York Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver introduced a legislative resolution to honor him.)
Though many grumble about Schneier’s self-importance, there’s no
denying that his reach and recognition are global: in 2011 he
participated in the fourth annual forum on development in Doha, Qatar,
as an ambassador of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, he took a
humanitarian mission to Cuba to seek the release of American prisoner
Alan Gross, and he received the French Legion of Honor medal and an
Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for helping develop
Polish-Jewish dialogue. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations,
Schneier is also the father of Hamptons Rabbi Marc Schneier (#35) who,
years ago, was being groomed as Park East’s heir apparent, but who
clearly preferred to carve his own path. (2011: #26)
30. Shmuley Boteach (Orthodox)
Known for his bestselling books on parenting and sex, Boteach “threw
his yarmulke in the ring” to run for a congressional seat in New
Jersey to “bring Jewish values into the political discourse” and won
the Republican nomination. He has said he’ll consider legislation “to
re-create an American Sabbath so parents have an incentive to take
their kids to a park rather than teaching them to find satisfaction in
the impulse purchase.” There is ample Boteach bashing among fellow
clergy because of what’s perceived as his unremitting self-promotion,
and his political candidacy has not been helped by a report in The
Forward that said an “examination of public records reveals that the
charity Boteach heads spends a significant portion of its revenues on
payments to Boteach and his family.” (2011: #11)
32. Sara Hurwitz (Modern Orthodox)
Considered a full member of the clergy by her Modern Orthodox
congregation, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (her title is “Rabba” not
“Rabbi”), Hurwitz continues to be outspoken on the value and
legitimacy of women in Orthodox spiritual leadership. She recently
joined the debate about modesty and gender segregation in Israel and
America, writing, “Halakha [Jewish Law] should not be manipulated into
a smokescreen shielding men and sidelining women who have the
potential to enhance our community.” She is the dean of the first
seminary created expressly to train Orthodox women for leadership,
Yeshivat Maharat. It remains to be seen what title will be given to
women in the first graduating class when they go job hunting next
year. (2011: #32)
35. Marc Schneier (Orthodox)
Richard A. Lobell Photography
Though many would prefer he spent less time in the tabloids, this
rabbi of the popular Hampton Synagogue on Long Island (and son of
Arthur #27) has done consistently bold work on Jewish-Muslim
coexistence. In partnership with Imam Shamsi Ali, a Muslim scholar who
leads New York’s largest mosque, and through his Foundation For Ethnic
Understanding, which is chaired by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons
(Schneier and Simmons enjoyed a private audience with Israeli
president Shimon Peres last month), Schneier charts unorthodox waters
for an Orthodox rabbi. This past year, he worked behind the scenes to
get a group of American imams to write a letter to Hamas making the
Koranic case for releasing Gilad Shalit. (REINSTATED FROM PRE-2011
LISTS)
40. Shmuly Yanklowitz (Modern Orthodox)
The energetic Founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, an influential
Orthodox social Justice group, Yanklowitz was described by one
observer of the Jewish world as “the face of the future, because he
works round the clock and creates a new organization every week.”
(His latest is a center for Jewish vegans, cofounded with musician
Matisyahu.) The author of Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for
the 21st Century, he trained at Avi Weiss’s YCT (#11) and is probably
the first Orthodox rabbi to quote Foucault to advocate for prison
reform. (NEW)
42. Dov Linzer (Modern Orthodox)
The dean of the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT),
(founded by Avi Weiss, #11) Linzer stirred the Orthodox waters in
January with his provocative New York Times op-ed claiming that
Haredim “objectify and hyper-sexualize women” against the letter and
spirit of the Torah and Talmud. Over the past 10 years, 80 of his
graduates have been placed in—or have created—significant synagogues,
schools, and national organizations, including Shmuly Yanklowitz (see
#40) and New Orleans’s Rabbi Uri Topolosky, who lost his temple in
Hurricane Katrina and will be rededicating a new one this coming
summer. (2011: #44)
44. Steven Greenberg (Modern Orthodox)
A senior teaching fellow at CLAL and a founder and co-director of the
new group, Eshel, which aims to expand the welcome for GLBT Jews in
Orthodox communities, Greenberg is considered the first openly gay
Orthodox rabbi and is often asked to talk about his landmark book,
Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.
Last fall Greenberg performed what was considered the first gay
marriage by an openly gay Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C. “I did
not conduct a ‘gay Orthodox wedding,’” he wrote in The Jewish Week. “I
officiated at a ceremony that celebrated the decision of two men to
commit to each other in love and to do so in binding fashion.” (2011:
#50)
