JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Weighing in on the Forward 50

In the better late than never department... here's my take on this year's Forward 50 list.

Let's start with the Top 5. Assuming things haven't changed since my days at the Forward, the editors and writers over there were committed to producing a diverse list -- especially at the top. That usually means one organizational type, two at the most. A celebrity. At least one woman. Someone under 50 (under 40 would be better). And a person who lives somewhere outside of the New York metropolitan area.

Some years you get luck, and cover a bunch of the bases with one pick (see Sarah Silverman in 2008). Sometimes it takes more thought.

This year's entertainment pick -- Joel and Ethan Coen -- was right on the money, with "A Serious Man" out in theaters and "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" coming down the pike. Hey, if Steven Spielberg making a Shoah film with a gentile hero justified all that Jewey buzz, then the Coen brothers should be hailed as the Moseses of filmmaking.

Jerry Silverman, the new CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, makes sense also. He's a fresh face, and has an important job, as he looks to give a boost to North America's largest Jewish chraitable network -- at a time of escalating needs. The only question is why hasn't he ever been on the list before, as he helped transform the Foundation for Jewish Camp into a $20 million per year juggernaught.

Michael Oren is a provacative pick, on several fronts. I'm wondering: Does this mean the list is no longer limited to Americans? Or does being born and raised here make you permanently eligible, even if you move to another country? Or is working in the United States for a limited stint enough to qualify (even if in the process you give up your U.S. citizenship)? Don't get me wrong, the pick feels right (even for a Top 5er). I'm only asking because it relates to my questions about what could prove to be the worst Forward 50 decision of all time...

Dmitriy Salita? And not Yuri Foreman? If Lenore Skenazy and Ayelet Waldman can share an entry, why not two Orthodox Jewish boxers set to fight for championships? And if you're going to choose, try making sure that you go with the one with better odds on taking home the belt. As it stands now, Foreman is the champ -- and Salita is facing a tough fight later this month. Even if Salita also wins, what you have is a Jewish boxing champ studying to be a rabbi -- who did not make the Forward 50!?! What does this have to do with Michael Oren? The only thing I'm wondering is if Foreman was excluded because the Forward folks don't consider him American (even though he now lives in Brooklyn). But then why would would Oren qualify? Or, for that matter, Salita?

On the topic of lumping together and possible Top 5 candidates... Last year Rahm Emanuel was in the Top 5, and David Axelrod didn't even make the list. This year the Forward splits the difference, lumping the two Obama adviser together and placing them in the regular ranks. My two cents: They work as a pair, but Emanuel probably could have been a Top 5er again on his own, with Axelrod getting his own spot farther down the list. By most accounts, Emanuel seems to be the bigger player/enforcer on the Jewish-Israel stuff, and he's the guy the White House sent to pinch hit for Obama at the GA. But who would you bump from the top? Maybe Oren. Or maybe package those guys together -- Bibi's and Obama's top Jews in D.C.

Rounding out the Top 5 discussion... Sara Hurwitz. Does she deserve to be at the top? Had she been able to claim the title of rabbi, it would have been a reasonable choice. But in the end she accepted the title of Maharat instead, so I'm not sure this was the right pick. The Forward says that, under the guidance of Orthodox maverick Rabbi Avi Weiss, she has "dramatically broadened the boundaries of acceptable public roles for women in an Orthodox setting"; and then it plays up the fact that she and Weiss are "establishing a training program for other women who wish to become a Maharat." But Yeshiva University is already running an advanced Talmud program for women that has already placed women in full-time clergy roles in Modern Orthodox congregations. So why not Elana Stein Hain of Lincoln Square Synagogue or Lynn Kaye of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue? And why mention Weiss, and not Rabbi Shmuel Hain, who runs the Y.U. Talmud program (or, if Y.U.'s Center for the Jewish Future takes up the cause of placing these women, Rabbi Kenny Brander)? This isn't a matter of diminishing the accomplishments of Hurwitz and Weiss; it's just that in this case -- since the two of them passed on the rabbi title -- things are arguably moving faster (if not as loudly) within the establishment.

Oh, wait, one more Top 5 thought: Bernie Madoff? He's on the list, but not in the top tier. Interesting.

Perhaps no selection widens the scope of the Forward 50 more than Marsha Levick, a legal crusader -- with very little in the way of a distinctly Jewish resume. I'm not objecting -- after all, you can make a strong case that us Jewish media types should spend less time worrying about what Jewish organizations are up to, and more time reporting on what real life Jews are actually doing. Just thought it was worth noting.

I could go on, so I'll leave it at... Yes, Jay Michaelson is, among other things, a Forward columnist. But stop being so cynical. He's a smart choice for his role in the Jewish spirituality movement. And, who knows, maybe it means Eli Valley has a chance next year!

Be sure to read through the list and judge for yourselves. Is anyone missing? Who would you bump to put him or her on?

  • Share Share

Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments

01/29/10 09:13 PM

To Warburg and the Jewlicious Gang: You have taken a comment of mine on Jewlicious from 1/29/10, and replaced it with some nonsense I did not compose! Consequently, I am posting the correct comment here, with a short bit of additional information:

Middle : Apparently, you’ve deleted a comment of mine from the early morning of January 29, and replaced it with some garbage post about my coming and leaving again . . .  etc.  Well, that says a great deal about your integrity, doesn’t it? Maybe you’ll pull the same crap here, in an effort to make me annoyed enough to stop commenting at all Fine, be an idiot again, if that’s the only way you think you can rid yourself of me. It won’t work. If not here, I’ll comment against you elsewhere. And I will surely, from now on, keep copies of my original comments. And, Stan, for heaven’s sake You needn’t show off your lack of knowledge about computers--there IS a relationship between a computer and a laptop when the laptop is connected to the desk top computer through a wireless router. Therefore, the laptop is receiving its wireless signal via the router, which is hooked into the back of the modem of the desk top. Again, you exhibit your famous penchant for knowing only half of what you claim to know. Let’s clear up some other misunderstandings you’ve picked up over time, probably because you suffer from the early stages of senile dementia. I never claimed to be German. My background is Swiss-German and American. My last name is Swiss-German. Just check any Zurich or Aarau phone directory and you will see that. I am a dual national.  Nor have I ever claimed to be an expert on Germany, with the exception of the Nazi Zeit.  I have never claimed to be fluent in German, either. My German was pretty good when I was a younger man, but it has rusted through the years as I don’t use it often. But I can still speak and read it fairly competently, since it tends to come back rather quickly when I am in a German speaking environment for any period of time. As for my visits to Germany, I have been there, and to Austria as well, about six times since 2003. I encounter no legal problems in Germany (or Austria) since, as I noted before, I engage in no National Socialist activities there. And all my neo-Nazi blogs and such are composed in the United States. As long as I do not compose or personally distribute them in any EU country or non-EU European state, and as long as I do not give pro-Nazi speeches, etc., in those states, I have committed no crime. Even if someone else distributes in, say, Germany, anything I have composed, I am not held legally liable--but the distributor would be.

Since my original comment of 1/29/10 was deleted and replaced with some other material not composed by me, I am forced to repeat, in brief, what my actual comment said. First, to Froylein and ‘the Middle’, I simply state that you will not be rid of me On my Oath as a National Socialist, I pledge to dog you, and dog you, and dog you on and on, wherever and whenever I can. Second, to Stanley Wertheim, you are on the radar scope, and when you’ve died, I will desecrate your grave By the way, why don’t you do something useful and start to dig it now.  Meine Ehre heisst Treue PLUSS

02/02/10 11:41 PM

Pluss, Baby -

I thought you had floated away. Before I go on, BTW, I called you Puss in my previous reply because spell check didn’t alert me as it did with Pluss. So typos do not make me childish.

What IS humorous is that you claim on your web site to be prominent in an organization that is “open to all Americans except Blacks and Jews.” And YOU called ME childish?

Also, BTW, your blast at being sick and tired of hearing about Jewish accomplishments is only rooted in Jew hatred. I quote from your response to me:
“BUT, at the same time, so are Swiss accomplishments, German accomplishments, American/Gentile accomplishments admirable, if not ground-breaking. So, please do get off your “high horse, ‘kay?”
The very fact that Jewish accomplishments, Israeli accomplishments, and such, tend to work AGAINST World Jewry is that many Jews have the annoying, if not nearly reprehensible, habit of constantly “rubbing in” what they’ve accomplished!”

Sorry, Jews very rarely talk about their accomplishments and Israel in particular has chosen to ignore boasting altogether, choosing instead to basically ignor the world and just accomplish. Also, I challenge you to find the bragging rights spewed from those 100’s of Jews who have won Nobel science prizes over the years. Or scores of other top awards. They take the prizes, thank the audience and then go back to the business of discovery, often putting their prize money to forward their research instead of private coffers --- how dare they be so un-Jewlike.

Now, the Swiss have added little of value to the world.

The Germans, however, despite the atrocity of Naziism, gave to the world the greatest legacy of art and music the 17th through 19th Centuries had. And this is not a joke. This is a legacy of greatness unmatched anywhere in history and will probably never be seen again. In music, for example, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Telemann, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn are among the greatest of the greats and represent only a smidgen of what was offered.

I left out Hugo Wolf and Gustav Mahler because they were Jewish and, therefore, unmentionable because you will be sicker and tireder.

All-in-all, this whole shtick is silly beyond belief. The Nazis will never win and will only continue as a dangerous annoyance. In the USA Anti-Semitism is the lowest anywhere in the world and continues to drop drastically. Among whites it is less than 9%. Add in Blacks, Muslims and Hispanics and the total grows to 16% - still all down from 65% overall seen in the late 1970’s.

Let’s put it all in perspective. The world economy continues to teeter on destruction - an event that will lead to events making WWII seem like a brief comedy act. Muslim extremists - fueled by billions of annual $ from Saudi Arabia promoting world-wide Wahhabism - dwarf all of the right wing extremists and Nazis in the world by a vast margin. The UN continues its asinine love affair of hating Israel and codling extremism including Iran, forcing the Middle East into a major confrontation --- sorry, Israel may or may not survive, but I can assure you She will not go easily. The spread of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists makes life more and more fun - like living inside a Pin-Ball Machine. Global warming - that vast Liberal conspiracy [no, this is not something you said, just a GOP/fossil fuel industry screed] - is actually 35 to 40 years AHEAD of the most dire warnings of 10 - 12 years ago, including the open sea route through the Arctic Circle. The effects will pit the nations that hold our energy supplies against each other, maybe destroying the world economy once and for all.

In short, Dear Pluss, you may think you are supreme, you may think you are right, you may think you are superior. You may think the Jews are vermin who brag like the Russians about imaginary accomplishments and who wallow with Blacks as mud people who disgust even the pigs nearby. But it is all meaningless. The sweep of world events may soon make the both of us totally irrelevant.

Will that be good? ‘Dunno --- we probably won’t live through it to find out.

Happy trails.

Tom

Leave a Comment

To leave a comment, you must first be logged in to JTA. If you are not registered, please click here.

Already a JTA member?

I forgot my password

Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!