50 Influential Rabbis

Not a single Rabbi from a mainstream Torah Learning/Teaching Institution. I guess G-D boesn't have a place amoung the Rabbis of the United States.

Thank you for including many rabbis who are not fundamentalists. Most of us who are Jews are not fundamentalists. We believe in living in the world, caring about the world, and working to make this a better world, as a result ,in part of the teachings of our non-fundamentalist rabbis.

once again Newsweek has shown its ignorance by glorifying Jewish administrators who are total non-factors on the Jewish scene and ignoring Rabbinical heavy weights with substantial influence and huge followings:
MIA
Aaron Teilbaum + Zalman teitlbaum head of the Satmar movement with atleast 50,000 followers in the US and double that world wide with networks of schools and synagogues across the globe.(which other Rabbi in the US has emergency plans on file in the City of NY in the event family tragedy)
Malkiel kotler - dean of BMG Lakewood NJ - the largest rabbinical college in the world bar none with branches world wide and an enrollment of 4000 in Lakewood NJ alone
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski- scholar, prolific author, renowned substance abuse expert, chassidic rebbe, psychiatrist,
speaker, able to pack large venues on short notice
Rabbi David Lichtenstein - scholar and CEO of Lightstone Group a leading real estate development company
Rabbi Nosson Sherman - Artscroll Publishing possibly the largest publisher of religious text in the US out selling anything that any so called author on the list has produced
Rabbi Aaron Twerski PHD - scholar, author. past dean of Hofstra Law school. Legal council for Agudath Israel of America
how did these people get over looked
Please be advised the Reform Rabbis have little or no influence on their constituents
They are merely enablers and assist their followers in doing what ever they wanted to do
in ignoring jewish law

once again Newsweek has shown its ignorance by glorifying Jewish administrators who are total non-factors on the Jewish scene and ignoring Rabbinical heavy weights with substantial influence and huge followings:
MIA
Aaron Teilbaum + Zalman teitlbaum head of the Satmar movement with atleast 50,000 followers in the US and double that world wide with networks of schools and synagogues across the globe.(which other Rabbi in the US has emergency plans on file in the City of NY in the event family tragedy)
Malkiel kotler - dean of BMG Lakewood NJ - the largest rabbinical college in the world bar none withe branches world wide and an enrollment of 4000 in Lakewood NJ alone
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski- scholar, prolific author, renowned substance abuse expert, chassidic rebbe, psychiatrist,
speaker, able to pack large venues on short notice
Rabbi David Lichtenstein - scholar and CEO of Lightstone Group a leading real estate development company
Rabbi Nosson Sherman - Artscroll Publishing possibly the largest publisher of religous text in the US out selling anything that an so called author on the list has produced
Rabbi Aaron Twerski PHD - scholar, author. past dean of Hofstra Law school. Legal council for Agudath Israel of america
how did these people get over looked

Why are entertainment executives choosing spiritual leaders? I find it embarrassing.

Outside of my own Conservative congregation in Chicago, the most influential rabbi I've seen this past year has been Rabbi Morris Allen from the Twin Cities. I wholeheartedly endorse his creation of Hechsher Tezedek, a certification that kosher food is produced not only in accordance religious procedural guidelines but also in accordance with Jewish ethical principles. In the wake of the Agriprocessor plant fiasco and its atrocious treatment of undocumented workers, the Hechsher Tzedek is very necessary. I encourage the Newsweek raters to keep track of this new Kosher certification over the course of the year and let's see if it will have "legs" both within the Jewish community and nationally. Perhaps Rabbi Morris will make next year's list???

Judaism was invented by God in the Torah. For 4000 years our best rabbis (the word "rabbi" means "best", as it were) were always and only the top Torah scholars. Why has this list not even mentioned one of todays top Torah scholars, and instead, placed political, financial, gay, and game show host rabbis instead?

C'mon. Rabbi Harold White has to be on the list. How many of these rabbis were on the cover of the Washington Post Sunday magazine (the Washingtonian)? How many married someone of the prestige of Ari Fleisher? How many teach at a place like Georgetown University? Rabbi White is the one for the power elite to go to who want to get married.

While the other comments here focus on the lack of "real rabbis" (I'm assuming these commenters want to see more Orthodox rabbis on the list), there are people over on Jewschool who have many more problems with this list. It is full of errors (the short bio blurbs for the rabbis need to be fact-checked), it's lacking in geographic diversity, it's lacking in women (6/50 on the list, but women make up more than 12% of America's rabbinate), and the list is lacking rabbis that the majority of Jewish Americans might have heard of. See http://jewschool.com/2009/04/05/15792/newsweek-makes-another-list/ for more.

While the other comments here focus on the lack of "real rabbis" (I'm assuming these commenters want to see more Orthodox rabbis on the list), there are people over on Jewschool who have many more problems with this list. It is full of errors (the short bio blurbs for the rabbis need to be fact-checked), it's lacking in geographic diversity, it's lacking in women (6/50 on the list, but women make up more than 12% of America's rabbinate), and the list is lacking rabbis that the majority of Jewish Americans might have heard of. See http://jewschool.com/2009/04/05/15792/newsweek-makes-another-list/ for more.

who are you to rate rabbis? your lack of knowledge of wat judiasim is about beams from this list, not only are there few to none real rabbis on your list theres barely any religous g-d-fearing jews!
pls stick a topic you understand next ranking

IT IS A TRAVESTY that DR. Rabbi Martin Cohen of Shelter Rock Jewish Center is not on the list. He is a leader of the conservative movement, publisher and editor of conservative judaism journal.His translation of the psalms is given out at rabbinical graduations of all denominations. His constituency is well over a 1000 families in NY alone. This does not include his previous constituencies from Southern California and Vancouver BC. And it definitely does not count his thousands of followers of his non fiction books as well as his fiction. The irony is he has at one time taught and lectured and even INFLUENCED a number of rabbis already on this list. I urge whoever put this list together to do some more research and ask the rabbis on this list or at very least to google Rabbi Martin Samuel Cohen. Only then may you get a real sense of what really goes into an "Influential" rabbi.

No Heads of Yeshivos or Hasidic leaders, besides those of the fringe messianic Habad movement? No mention of Rabbi Kaminetzky of Philadelphia Yeshiva or Rabbi Teitelbaum of Monroe, NY and others? They are the leaders of Torah true Judaism and have a more profound influence than those you mentioned. You guys just don't get it.

This list is a travesty. For the most part it is people who are destroying rather than strengthening the Jewish religion. It ranges from the gay to those who deny the divine origin of the Torah to those who question the existence of G-d (but he is a good idea :-) )!

Chaim Manaster