{"id":1340,"date":"2009-04-06T17:51:32","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T17:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50.php"},"modified":"2009-04-06T17:51:32","modified_gmt":"2009-04-06T17:51:32","slug":"newsweek-names-nations-top-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek Names Nation’s Top 50 Rabbis"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) There’s a new top rabbi in town, according to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential Jewish clergy in America: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington and a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
\nSaperstein took the top spot from Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Hier had topped both previous annual lists, but came in second this year.
\nThe ranking system, compiled for the third year by Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, News Corp’s Gary Ginsberg and Jay Sanderson of JTN Productions, rewards rabbis with international reputations and political influence.
\nIn response to criticism about overlooking local community leaders, the three judges also compiled a list of 25 Most Vibrant Congregations this year, ranging from the Orthodox B’nai Jeshrun in Manhattan to the nondenominational Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
\nCritics still say the subjective list favors New York and California, and now note that it’s gotten repetitive: only nine of the 50 rabbis on this year’s list have not appeared in previous rankings.
\nComplaints also remain about its dearth of women: this year’s ranking includes six female rabbis, up just one from last year. The highest was only in 25th place: Sharon Kleinbaum, down from 17th place last year, is the senior rabbi of New York’s synagogue for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews.
\nNo list or method could be perfect, the judges note in their caveat.
\n“This list is intended to provoke a global conversation about the role of our religious leaders in today’s world,” they wrote. “Although this is a well-thought-out list, it is by no means scientific and is not connected to any religious movement or agenda.”
\nNicole Neroulias
\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) There’s a new top rabbi in town, according to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential Jewish clergy in America: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington and a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Saperstein took the top spot from Rabbi Marvin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsweek Names Nation's Top 50 Rabbis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newsweek Names Nation's Top 50 Rabbis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) There’s a new top rabbi in town, according to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential Jewish clergy in America: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington and a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Saperstein took the top spot from Rabbi Marvin…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-06T17:51:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Newsweek Names Nation's Top 50 Rabbis","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Newsweek Names Nation's Top 50 Rabbis","og_description":"(RNS) There’s a new top rabbi in town, according to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential Jewish clergy in America: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington and a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Saperstein took the top spot from Rabbi Marvin…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-04-06T17:51:32+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50","name":"Newsweek Names Nation's Top 50 Rabbis","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-06T17:51:32+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-06T17:51:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/newsweek-names-nations-top-50#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Newsweek Names Nation’s Top 50 Rabbis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}