{"id":56185,"date":"2014-08-06T10:56:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T18:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=56185"},"modified":"2014-08-06T11:23:51","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T19:23:51","slug":"great-shmuley-boteach-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=56185","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Profiled In Tablet Mag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great article<\/a>: [Shmuley’s dad Yoav] Botach\u2019s manner with his son was impatient, dismissive. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be on the phone now,\u201d he chastised Boteach at one point, in Hebrew. \u201cOK, Abba, OK,\u201d Boteach replied. I asked Yoav if he was proud of his son. \u201cSometimes yes, sometimes no.\u201d When yes, when no? \u201cWhen he doing very well, no. When he doing less good, yes.\u201d He chuckled at this enigmatic answer. \u201cYes, he\u2019s OK,\u201d he said in Hebrew. \u201cHe holds the Boteach family on the good name.\u201d<\/p>\n

… In the car, after we left Botach Management, \u201cAmerica\u2019s Rabbi\u201d told me to turn off my tape recorder and began shouting at me. I had betrayed him, seemed to be the gist of it. How could I have done such a thing? Do I have no journalistic ethics? The barrage seemed endless. \u201cI am Shmuley Boteach!\u201d he shouted at me on the phone a few nights later. \u201cI am Shmuley Boteach! I am not Yoav! I am not Bar Kochba! What does this have to do with me?\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, he called to apologize. \u201cMy father gave me a whole talk,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is upset about the conversation, he\u2019s upset at me, he\u2019s confused.\u201d That afternoon, we met again\u2014this time, at his father\u2019s house\u2014and Boteach seemed placated. But the entente was short-lived.<\/p>\n

Over the next month, Boteach made repeated calls to my editors, as did his publicists, who sent emails that accused me of \u201cduplicitousness.\u201d \u201cShmuley is an open book,\u201d his publicist wrote to my editor. \u201cHe is hiding nothing. Yet, he needs to make sure that the Tablet will be vigilant in only publishing the facts.\u201d Boteach claimed I misled him about my intentions regarding this story and, via a letter from his lawyer, asserted that I had clearly embarked on \u201ca personal agenda and threatened to do a \u2018hatchet job\u2019 \u201d on him. In one email, Boteach wrote: \u201cMy deep disappointment results from my foolishness in having exposed my 82-year-old father, who last Passover suffered a stroke, to a journalist who would use him and so severely disrespect him.\u201d Just before publication, Boteach declined to answer a list of queries I sent him. In place of answers, his publicist sent a message that said in part, \u201cRabbi Boteach declines to respond given the scurrilous and dismally researched character of the questions.\u201d His statement accused me of having a \u201chidden agenda\u201d because my brother once debated him, in 2011, at a public discussion of circumcision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great article: [Shmuley’s dad Yoav] Botach\u2019s manner with his son was impatient, dismissive. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be on the phone now,\u201d he chastised Boteach at one point, in Hebrew. \u201cOK, Abba, OK,\u201d Boteach replied. I asked Yoav if he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shmuley-boteach"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t