Holding the No. 1 spot for a second year, Krinsky represents the fastest-growing denomination in Judaism, The Chabad-Lubavitch movement – a branch of Hasidism that reaches out assertively to Jews of all stripes and often cultivates the financial support and loyalty of Jewish men enticed by the suggestion of private Torah study. Krinsky doesn’t try to replicate the Messianic presence of his late predecessor and mentor, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, but he has brought a professionalism and managerial rigor to Chabad, which has been watched (and even quietly envied and emulated) by other denominations that would like to capture some of its magic outreach. (2010 ranking: #1)
David Karp / AP Photo
Touted for his oratory gifts (fans download Wolpe’s past sermons from his synagogue’s website), this senior rabbi of L.A.’s Sinai Temple, the largest Conservative congregation west of Mississippi, tutors Kirk Douglas in Torah and defends God in public debates with formidable atheist Christopher Hitchens. This year he single-handedly raised $75,000 for a Christian orphanage he visited in Haiti where he spackled floors at the invitation of his childhood pal, writer Mitch Albom. He’s nailed the new media moment by creating a virtual congregation on Facebook (10,000 followers and counting), where he posts daily sermonic musings and often responds to people individually. (2010: #13)
He is the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which keeps social justice front and center in Judaism’s largest denomination and the Washington Post once called him "the quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill.” Rabbi Saperstein was chosen to be part of Obama’s first White House Council on Faith-Based Initiatives and recently received kudos for being brave enough, in the same keynote address, to both praise and criticize the organization that invited him: J Street – the attention-getting new AIPAC-alternative. (2010: #5)
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Over his two-decade tenure, reform Rabbi Peter Rubinstein has rejuvenated New York’s historic temple, Central Synagogue, to the point where its membership is at capacity at 6,000 with 300 on the waiting list. He’s making waves this year because of his Rabbinic Vision Initiative (RVI); Rubinstein invited 16 other leading Reform rabbis to address the malaise in the Reform movement’s three main organizations, chiefly the Union for Reform Judaism that counts 900 member congregations and represents the largest denomination in the country (an estimated 1.5 million Jews). Despite charges of insurrectionism, Rubinstein’s team is shaking up business as usual in the Reform movement. (2010: #29)
Suzanne Plunkett / AP Photo
Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and dean of the Orthodox Yeshiva University in Los Angeles, Hier continues to closely monitor international anti-Semitism and has the proverbial red phone to world leaders and Hollywood bigwigs. (Longtime Wiesenthal donor Tom Cruise is being honored next month.) Hier’s been in the news defending the Center’s plans to build a Museum of Tolerance in Israel atop what some say is a Muslim cemetery (Hier maintains it’s a car park) and for his annual list of “Top 10 Anti-Semitic Slurs” in which he chastised comments by Helen Thomas and Oliver Stone. (2010: #3)
Katy Winn / AP Photo
The president of American Jewish University in L.A., Wexler has a powerful perch at one of the largest Jewish institutions in the country. A Conservative rabbi who was raised Reform and attends an Orthodox shul, Wexler moves comfortably between denominations and thinks the labels are unhelpful anyway. Wexler is famous for his study of 10 languages and his stewardship of AJU’s lecture series (5,000 people come to listen each year) for which Wexler has interviewed VIPs such as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Shimon Peres, and Colin Powell. (2010: #9)
Often described as magnetic, the rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple was just named to head the largest movement in American Jewry; He’ll be only the fourth president in the URJ’s 68-year history. Jacobs is known for prioritizing social justice (keeping Darfur on the agenda long after many looked away) and rethinking worship to engage the disaffected. “Only meaningful congregations will matter,” he said recently. “People won’t join [synagogues] just because their grandparents did. We have to matter every day.” This former modern dancer has been part of Peter Rubinstein’s initiative, so it will be interesting to see how he now balances being both the insurgent and the establishment. (NEW)
Ben Fink Shapiro
Leder made headlines this year when he pulled out of the URJ because of his dissatisfaction with its direction and leadership, putting public pressure on the movement to get its house in order. A member of RVI (see #4), Leder skippers L.A.’s mammoth and storied Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where Hollywood icons Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner once prayed. Leder’s flair for fundraising is renowned – no easy feat in the post-Madoff world. He manages to both raise money and caution its corruption; his most famous book is More Money than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul. (2010: #45)
President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC), which trains the Reform rabbis of tomorrow on four campuses – New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Jerusalem – Ellenson is universally well-liked and respected but has weathered a couple of tough years due to declining enrollment and his need to focus so much energy on emergency fundraising. He garnered accolades recently when he announced that HUC’s cantorial school, thanks to a special endowment, would be named for Debbie Friedman – the singer/songwriter who redefined worship across the country and died last January at age 59. (2010: #8)
The 37-year-old founder of IKAR (Hebrew for “essence”), this graduate of Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) continues to attract national attention for her vibrant spiritual community in L.A. where members are not just asked, but expected to sign up for one of the social justice projects and Torah is consistently linked to responsibility in the world. Ami Eden – editor of JTA, the Jewish news agency – recently patted himself on the back for predicting Brous’ star power back in 2004: “I wrote…. ‘If Conservative Judaism ever reclaims its status as the country's largest Jewish denomination, it will be in large part thanks to the work of rabbis like Sharon Brous.’” (2010: #31)
Kim Silverstein
Though many of his fellow clergy deride his tireless self-advertisement, they also tip their hats to Boteach for hammering home the notion that the tenets of Judaism are relevant – and essential – for Americans of any faith. His prolific output of books (18), essays and lectures is unmatched, and book titles such as Kosher Adultery: Seduce and Sin with Your Spouse and The Broken American Male and How to Fix Him have resonated with mainstream audiences. Few rabbis have had his Oprah platform even once, (he was a regular) and it’s doubtful any others can claim to have counseled Michael Jackson. Boteach has 6,000-plus Facebook fans and counting. (2010: #6)
Richard Drew / AP Photo
The dust has finally settled after his explosive decision last year to make Sara Hurwitz a “rabba” -- symbolically the first woman rabbi in Orthodox Judaism. But Weiss, founder of The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, remains an agenda-setting voice in the Modern Orthodox world, and his seminary, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), despite some detractors in the old guard, is earning increasing respect thanks to the caliber of its graduates. (2010 ranking #18)
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Born in Buenos Aires, where he was mentored by the legendary late Marshall Meyer, Matalon has for two-plus decades shepherded one of the most dynamic Conservative synagogues in America, B’nai Jeshurun, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Besides being one of the first congregations to prioritize social action projects, “BJ,” as it’s called, is best known for Sabbath services that draw standing room crowds, dancing in the aisles, and the Holy Grail: lots of Jewish singles. (2010 ranking #22)
In the Modern Orthodox world, Rabbi Schachter of Yeshiva University (YU) is widely considered America’s foremost authority on Halacha (Jewish law). He is also a contentious figure for having pushed YU to the right in terms of religious stringency, (Schachter and fellow YU alumnus Avi Weiss are described as opposite poles of the Modern Orthodox spectrum.). Schachter was mentored by the legendary Rabbi Soloveitchik and was YU’s youngest rosh yeshiva at the age of 26 in 1967. He wields considerable power within the Rabbinical Council of America, Orthodoxy’s largest and most influential rabbinic organization. (NEW)
Anyone searching for a book that offers one-stop shopping – Bible, Jewish history and ethics – can’t do better than to turn to Telushkin’s Jewish Literacy, which lays out the vast Jewish landscape in engaging bite-size pieces. A spirited speaker and some-time screenwriter (he co-wrote episodes of The Practice and a film called The Quarrel), Telushkin’s most recent book is Hillel: If Not Now, When? (2010: #15)
As the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), the only seminary affiliated with that branch of Judaism, Ehrenkrantz once explained Reconstructionism as “the only movement in Jewish life which doesn't imagine that Judaism is the religion which God created. And if God didn't create Judaism, neither did God choose the Jewish people to carry the one true religion into the world.” Last January, he got top billing as one of the 400-plus rabbis who signed an ad asking Glenn Beck to stop invoking the Holocaust on the air. (2010: #23)
Green might be termed “The Rabbis’ Rabbi” since he is so often mentioned by his counterparts as the thinker who consistently expands their thinking. (It’s markedly rare to hear one prominent rabbi extol another.) The rector of Hebrew College’s rabbinical school near Boston, Green is an authority on Jewish mysticism and spirituality. His most recent book, Radical Judaism, makes the case that environmentalism and pacifism are integral to Judaic theology and tradition. (2010: #28)
Eckstein raises tens of millions of dollars in the Christian community for Jewish causes, and as founder and president of the Chicago and Israel-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, is considered the Jewish authority on evangelical Christianity. An Israeli Hasidic singer who has recorded six CDs, this YU graduate has been criticized by some for pandering to Christians; Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, once told the New York Times that Eckstein is “selling the dignity of the Jewish people.” (2010: #21)
Levy is the founder of L.A.’s Nashuva (“We will return”), a spiritual community that requires neither dues nor membership and attracts families who haven’t found meaning or connection elsewhere. A nationally traveled speaker who manages to straddle accessibility and scholarship, she was among the first women to enter JTS’ rabbinical school and the first female Conservative rabbi to have a pulpit on the West Coast. Her recent book, Hope Will Find You, is about navigating life’s hurdles – in her case, her daughter’s potentially fatal, degenerative disease. (2010: #39)
The president of CLAL – The National Center for Learning and Leadership, this JTS graduate is known for impassioned teaching and prolific writings, including regular essays on the Huffington Post and Newsweek/WashingtonPost.com’s “On Faith” column. Though he no longer has a regular TV gig on the Today show, he – like Boteach (#11) – is one of the few rabbis who can say, “I’ve been on Oprah.” Not to mention he’s a playwright: The Gospel According to Jerry—which is about a divorced rabbi — just opened at the Minnesota Jewish Theater Company. (2010: #7)
The Modern Orthodox rabbi of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel in Chicago, Lopatin could be called “Rahm’s Rabbi,” since the Windy City’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is a longtime congregant. A Rhodes Scholar who was trained by both Schachter at YU (see #14) and Weiss at YCT (#12), Lopatin speaks fondly – and diplomatically – of both men and both strains of Orthodoxy. He has announced plans to make aliyah (emigrate to Israel) next year with 200 families. (2008: #22 on separate list of pulpit rabbis only)
The rabbi of the largest congregation in the Southwest, Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Stern is always on the short list of future leaders of Reform Judaism. (He’s another member of Peter Rubinstein’s renegade RVI squad.) Stern has stirred some controversy for his willingness to perform same-sex marriages while refusing to perform interfaith weddings. (2010: #47)
A lively professor of midrash (rabbinic commentary) and interreligious studies at JTS, Visotzky has fostered interfaith dialogue in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, and is one of very few rabbis who knows the New Testament and Koran as well as the Torah. This year he was one of five clergy chosen as New York Magazine’s “No. 1 Reason to Love New York” because of his outspoken support of the Islamic Center near Ground Zero. Many of the rabbis on this list once sat in his classroom, including David Wolpe, Sharon Brous, Naomi Levy, and Shai Held. (NEW)
A Reconstructionist rabbi and an out lesbian, Kleinbaum heads the world’s largest synagogue for LGBT Jews, Beit Simchat Torah, which rents out the massive Javits convention center in Manhattan for its High Holy Day services in order to accommodate the 4,000 people who attend (7,000 after 9/11). Social Network actor Jesse Eisenberg said in a recent interview that he has attended Kleinbaum’s services because her “sermons are just so remarkable, regardless of how religious you are or in the case of that temple, what your sexual orientation is.” (2010: #25)
Perhaps because Jews are more aware than ever of international humanitarian crises and their neighbors’ economic hardship, congregations across the country are putting social justice on the front-burner and Pesner is often the man helping them do it. Founding director of Just Congregations, which has trained 150 Reform congregations in community organization, this rabbi of Boston’s Temple Israel is teaching lay Jews to put their power where their values are. We spotlight him also for being one of two finalists for the presidency of the URJ. (NEW)
Senior rabbi of New York’s Modern Orthodox Park East Synagogue since 1962, this survivor of Nazi-occupied Budapest has been praised for his work in human rights and interfaith understanding. He was given the Presidential Citizen’s Medal by President Clinton and hosted the first Pope ever to visit an American synagogue – Pope Benedict XVI, who was Schneier’s guest in 2008. Last December, on the sixth day of Hanukkah, Germany paid Schneier its highest tribute– The Order of Merit, which – ironically – was an Officer’s Cross. (2010: #34)
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If New York is the East Coast hub of Jewish America, the JCC is its West Side nerve center. Levitt is Executive Director of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, and her demandingly inventive programming appeals to every conceivable constituency, family constellation, and interest group. Recently she’s taken hits for hosting the annual Other Israel Film Festival, which showcases films by and about Arab Israelis, but she’s stood by the diversity of cultural voices. Levitt recently used her sabbatical to write a manifesto on reimagining Jewish education for children, on the grounds that traditional “Hebrew School” no longer meets the realities of American families. (2009: #49)
Associate dean and co-founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Cooper is another heavy-hitter, meaning he can get a meeting with the Pope and get published on the Op-Ed page of almost any major periodical. Cooper meets frequently with world leaders as a representative of American Jewish interests and has focused lately on Internet hate speech and the potential for social networks to be used as platforms for violence. (2010: #33)
Bart Bartholomew Simon Wiesenthal Center
Recently appointed to the White House Faith Based Council and the first woman elected to a senior executive position in a major Jewish religious organization, Schonfeld now heads the Rabbinical Assembly – the membership organization for 1,600 Conservative rabbis around the world. Addressing what many consider to be an identity crisis in Conservative Judaism, JTS alum Schonfeld has spent the last year crisscrossing the country to listen to more than 400 rabbis explain what they’re trying to accomplish, with the aim of urging the movement back to its ideals. (NEW)
Principal of Manhattan’s Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox prep school established in 1937 by his father, Joseph, Lookstein took over the family pulpit at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in 1979 and became a recognized advocate for Soviet Jewry. More recently, Lookstein created a minor brouhaha when he was invited to President Obama’s national prayer service in the National Cathedral; the RCA (defined in #14) said Lookstein could not represent Orthodox Judaism in a Christian house of worship. (The RCA ultimately backed off.) (2010: #24)
An authority on the legendary philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel, Tucker is known for his deep scholarship, deft teaching and left-wing approach to Halacha (Jewish law). This rabbi of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York has argued forcefully for a rabbinic interpretation of Leviticus that does not prohibit homosexuality. The son he fathered with his first wife, Hadassah Freilich – now Lieberman (wife of Joe) – is Ethan Tucker, who occupies our 40th spot this year. (NEW)
The Orthodox community was up in arms after she was essentially anointed the first woman rabbi in Orthodox Judaism by Rabbi Avi Weiss (see #12), but the pressures of public scrutiny didn’t distract the South African-born Hurwitz from her commitment to myriad rabbinical duties at The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale nor from her deanship of the fledgling woman’s yeshiva, Yeshivat Marharat. Conceived by Weiss and Hurwitz as an unprecedented Orthodox seminary for women, it is still unclear what its graduates will be called. (2010: #36)
If there’s one rabbi who keeps nudging the tent open, it’s Olitzky, director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, which speaks chiefly to interfaith and unaffiliated families. Among his central messages is that Jewish institutions should worry less about preventing intermarriage and more about introducing all couples – Jewish or interfaith – to the benefits of raising children with a vital Jewish life. (2010: #37)
Another member of Rubinstein’s Rabbinic Vision Initiative (see #4), Pearce heads the largest synagogue in San Francisco, Congregation Emanu-El, with 2,700 families. Last year, Pearce became the international Vice Chair of Rabbis for Women of the Wall, which supports women who, since 1988, have been praying at the Kotel despite physical harassment from the Haredim and legal efforts to ban the women’s prayer services. (2009: #32)
In the last presidential election, Moline played a key role in calming Jewish voters’ uncertainty about Obama’s commitment to Israel. An organizer of “Rabbis for Obama,” Moline was Rahm Emanuel’s regular Torah study partner in the White House and last May, traveled to Israel to officiate at Emanuel’s son’s bar mitzvah. Chicago native Moline has made the Beltway his home for 25 years (though he remains devoted to the Cubs) as the Conservative rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim in Alexandria, Virginia. He is Director of Public Policy for the Rabbinical Assembly. (2010: #26)
A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Abrahamson was just named president of the influential Wexner Heritage Foundation, which trains the cream of Jewish professionals and lay leaders, awarding 20 choice scholarships per year. A charismatic speaker who has been active in The Women’s Rabbinic Network, she has been instrumental in training future luminaries of the Jewish world – its Ph.D.s, educators, and clergy. (NEW)
The Kabbalah Centre, which Berg runs with his brother, Michael, and which was founded in 1993 by his father and step-mother, may not be as chic as it once was, but it’s still a significant force in the Jewish world thanks to its boldfaced celebrity adherents--Madonna, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. (Berg accompanied Moore and Kutcher to Israel last fall.) Berg’s blog, “The Daily Tune-Up,” contains compact words of guidance such as, “Good thoughts count as deeds,” and “Who are you not to live up to your potential?” (2010: #14)
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The crowds of 600-plus at Central Synagogue’s Friday night services in Manhattan are credited in some measure to the voice and presence of its cantor of five years, Angela Buchdahl, who is also an ordained rabbi. She was the first Asian-American member of the Jewish clergy and the first woman to become both a cantor and a rabbi. Emblematic of the changing face of Judaism, Buchdahl was featured in last year’s PBS film, 18 Voices Sing Kol Nidre, and has been invited by HUC, JTS, and Wexner to lecture on how to recharge services. She is part of a select rabbinic leadership team, led by Jonah Pesner (#25), that is setting the agenda for community organizing in the Reform movement. (NEW)
Considered one of the pre-eminent founders of the Jewish Renewal movement, this Poland-born survivor of the French detention camps is credited with such innovations as chanting prayers in English using traditional Hebrew cadence and incorporating meditation practices into Sabbath and holiday services. (2010: #42)
In a few unadorned rooms on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, three energizing, erudite rabbis under the age of 40 have created the seminary they felt was missing. Mechon Hadar puts a premium on Hebrew competence and long-term commitment to its courses, but also welcomes guest students who want great Talmud but can’t commit a whole year (and yes, need the English translations). These teachers have generated buzz because they prove that great text study might make disengaged Jews take a second look at Judaism. (Kaunfer was #46 in 2009, Held & Tucker: NEW)
Bachman made an initial splash on this list in 2008, when he was ranked 10th of 25 pulpit rabbis, but then fell off the register for the next few years when his innovative congregation lost the luster of the new. A public critic of the list itself, calling it an example of “the media echo chamber of American Jewish life,” he has been reinstated this year, whether he cares or not, because, as rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim, he continues to nudge his Brooklyn community into the future, despite daunting economic challenges. He is also one of the exceptional teachers who can bring a text to life. (2008 pulpit rabbis: #10)
Tom Callan
Anisfeld is the dean of Hebrew College in Boston, a trans-denominational rabbinical school whose reputation is growing. A former Hillel rabbi at Tufts, Yale, and Harvard Universities, she has co-edited two volumes of women’s writings on Passover. Her soft voice belies her powerful teaching ability, though her talent is no secret at the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, which regularly invites Anisfeld to lead sessions at its annual conference, “Why Be Jewish?” – an exploration of Jewish identity and faith with invited Jewish leaders, writers, and clergy. (NEW)
A Seattle rabbi who is upending what it means to be part of a synagogue, Nussbaum co-founded The Kavana Cooperative five years ago – a collective which draws self-starters from the under-40 set who want to take ownership of their own education and ritual. Every member is considered a “partner” and makes a pledge to attend services, donate, and volunteer. Adding to her list of top fellowships (Wexner and Bronfman Youth), last year Nussbaum was selected to be one of eight Joshua Venture Group social entrepreneurship fellows, which includes a $50,000 grant. (2008 pulpit rabbis: #16)
Tapped 11 years ago by Rabbi Avi Weiss (#12) to be dean of the pioneering seminary, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), which is committed to a more expansive, inclusive definition of Orthodoxy, Linzer’s students now hold some of the most prominent positions in shuls and Hillels all over the country. YCT remains a lightning rod in the traditional Orthodox community (the RCA still doesn’t grant membership to its graduates), but its alumni will undoubtedly alter the fabric of Modern Orthodoxy. (NEW)
A leading authority on social justice issues, Jacobs was just named – on April 6 – the Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights–North America. This JTS-graduate (with an MA in Talmud) was formerly Rabbi-in-Residence at The Jewish Funds for Justice. Her column in The Forward – “Public Judaism” – began last year, and her forthcoming book, Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community, stresses that tikkun olam – healing the world – is as central to Jewish consciousness as synagogue prayer, home observance, or Israel. (2010: #49)
This popular California rabbi of Conservative temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino is a survivor of two bouts of colon cancer who speaks movingly to cancer support groups and once said, “The greatest sin is despair.” That said, he painted a gloomy picture of his denomination last month at The Rabbinical Assembly convention in Vegas when he said, “We are in deep trouble. There isn't a single demographic that is encouraging for the future of Conservative Judaism. Not one.” (2010: #46)
Hailing from the generation of female “firsts,” Geller, the third woman ordained in the Reform Movement, has for 17 years been the rabbi of one of the largest Reform synagogues in California, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. Geller was in the first training program of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, which runs retreats for rabbis and educators to explore every facet of spirituality, and she has incorporated meditation and contemplative silence into her programs and worship. A critic of this list in past years, in large part because women were in the minority, she wrote in the Huffington Post last year, “Judaism has changed because women rabbis have helped shape the conversation.” (NEW)
The scholar-in-residence and director of the Jewish Resource Center of the UJA-Federation of New York, Paley is on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and was the founder and first director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel, a highly competitive program that awards 26 star students a five-week immersion in Jewish learning between their junior and senior years of high school. An esteemed teacher who has mentored many rabbis on this list, he also officiated at the wedding of one of them: his cousin Rabbi Laura Geller (see #47). (2010: #48)
Executive director of the Reform movement’s Women’s Rabbinic Network and board chair of the Hadassah Foundation whose goal is social change for women in the U.S. and Israel, Ellenson is the go-to mentor for aspiring and practicing female rabbis in Reform Judaism. This year, Ellenson helped organize a rally to support Nofrat Frenkel who was arrested at the Western Wall while wearing a tallit. She also happens to be married to David Ellenson (see #9) (NEW)
The first Orthodox rabbi to come out publicly as a gay man, the YU-ordained Greenberg weathers critics who say that an Orthodox homosexual is an oxymoron. Director of Orthodox Programs for Nehirim, a young organization for GLBT Jews, Rabbi Greenberg is also a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. His 2005 book,
Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition is still considered groundbreaking. (NEW)
