Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Character references: Eric Garcetti

Published on May 15, 2013

In a few weeks, Eric Garcetti might become Los Angeles’ youngest mayor in more than a century. When Eric was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University from 1993 to 1996, we were close friends and he was a regular at my L’Chaim Society.

Stephen Hawking rejects the Zionism of Einstein

Published on May 14, 2013

Does anyone give a damn about Syria?

Published on January 18, 2013

Hagel’s homophobia

Published on January 9, 2013

Where was God When Hurricane Sandy Struck?

Published on October 31, 2012

What was G-d thinking when he sent Hurricane Sandy and what could have been its purpose?

CON: Should rabbis endorse candidates?

Published on September 12, 2012

In the summer of 2008 I received a phone call from the Obama campaign asking me to serve as national co-chair of Rabbis for Obama. What prompted the call? First, an article I had written praising the senator for using his name Barack — which he said his father had told him means blessing in Hebrew — rather than the more generic Barry.

The speech President Obama must give on Syria

Published on June 21, 2012

A Warrior-Scholar Falls in Israel: The Death of Benzion Netanyahu

Published on May 1, 2012

As millions starve in north korea, the west make jokes about their missiles

Published on April 19, 2012

In Norway you can murder 77 people and still enjoy retirement

Published on April 19, 2012

When A Teenager Buys Iced Tea and Ends Up in a Grave

Published on April 4, 2012

An Ungrateful Karzai Calls American Troops Demons

Published on March 19, 2012

Why B’nai Brith Canada Defended Michael Coren’s Anti-Semitism

Published on March 5, 2012

Jews Must Demand a Relationship of Full Equality with Christianity

Published on February 28, 2012

The Michael Coren Christians Who Cowardly Deny Church History

Published on February 24, 2012

Canadian TV Host Insinuates to Rabbi Shmuley Jews Control Hollywood [VIDEO]

Published on February 23, 2012

In the discussion of Jesus, Jews should go on offense

Published on February 1, 2012

Rabbi Wolf’s Continued Incitement Over My Kosher Jesus Book

Published on January 11, 2012

Tim Tebow Infiltrates the Secular Cathedral of Sport

Published on January 10, 2012

Religious extremists in Israel and how the mainstream must combat it

Published on January 3, 2012

Chanukah and How War Should Be Celebrated

Published on December 20, 2011

Christopher Hitchens and the fall of a worthy adversary

Published on December 16, 2011

Unfaithful husbands can still be faithful leaders

Published on December 13, 2011

The rebellious man of faith

Published on December 13, 2011

The patriarch Jacob, my namesake (Jacob Shmuel) of whom we have read the past few weeks in the Bible, is the most maligned of all the patriarchs.

Are Mormons Any Weirder Than the Rest of Us?

Published on November 30, 2011

Conrad Murray’s conviction has left everyone else off the hook

Published on November 8, 2011

Death of a Tyrant: Gadhafi’s opponents and those who chose passivity

Published on October 24, 2011

Can Obama be trusted on Israel?

Published on October 10, 2011

Erdogan’s blood libel against the Jewish State

Published on October 4, 2011

Resurrection of the American Undead

Published on September 26, 2011

Dear Gov. Perry: Instill Christian values with some Jewish ones

Published on September 21, 2011

Was G-d at Ground Zero?

Published on September 12, 2011

Decline and Fall of British Spirituality

Published on August 18, 2011

Rebirthing birthright

Published on August 17, 2011

How Israel is Blowing the Arab Spring

Published on August 8, 2011

To Wed a Daughter, to Sell a Kidney

Published on August 1, 2011

When murdering children becomes everyday news

Published on July 27, 2011

Surrounded by Christians who love Israel

Published on July 21, 2011

The Demonization of Eric Cantor

Published on July 19, 2011

The Butchering of 8-Year-Old Leiby Kletsky

Published on July 14, 2011

Knee-Deep in the Blood-Soaked Battlefields of Europe

Published on July 11, 2011

The tabloidization of Britain

Published on July 8, 2011

The New York Times’ questions monogamy

Published on July 5, 2011

While gays push to marry, heterosexuals fear commitment

Published on June 27, 2011

Korach: The Spiritual Narcissist

Published on June 24, 2011

Are the Circumcision Opponents Anti-Semitic or Sexually Repressed?

Published on June 20, 2011

An Evangelical Attempts to Proselytize Anthony Weiner

Published on June 16, 2011

Why Powerful Men Like Anthony Weiner Self-Destruct

Published on June 13, 2011

Did Anthony Weiner Want to Get Caught?

Published on June 6, 2011

Anthony Weiner and Healing The Broken American Male

Published on June 3, 2011

Beaches Belong to the People, Even in Greenwich

Published on June 2, 2011

Those who say Israel should fear Obama

Published on May 31, 2011

San Francisco’s Curious Attachment to the Male Foreskin

Published on May 26, 2011

Bibi’s Heckler: To Seize or Not to Seize

Published on May 25, 2011

At AIPAC, Obama’s Jackie Mason Moment

Published on May 23, 2011

Obama at AIPAC: Let the Fun Begin

Published on May 20, 2011

Why powerful men can’t keep their pants on

Published on May 18, 2011

The number of public men destroyed of late through sexual scandals is simply staggering. Within 48 hours of each other we heard that IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who many believed would be the next President of France, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger, until a few weeks ago the Governor of the most populous state in the Union, self-destructed with sex scandals.

Atheist Chaplains and the Church of Evolution

Published on April 29, 2011

Anorexia and the new values of courtship

Published on April 22, 2011

The New York Times article last week about the explosion of anorexia and eating disorders in the orthodox community highlights a tragedy that has long been buried. About four years ago I published a column about an eighteen-year-old girl my daughter knew at seminary in Jerusalem who died of anorexia. The seminary denied it was the cause and cited some other illness, even though the girls at the seminary watched her wasting away with the administration seemingly oblivious.

Samantha Power clarifies her comments on Israel

Published on April 11, 2011

Why more modern orthodox synagogues are taking Chabad Rabbis

Published on March 30, 2011

The past few weeks I have seen a revolution. On a lecture tour that took me to Sydney, Australia and Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, I hardly found a major mainstream synagogue without a Chabad Rabbi. Shules that once swore they would not invite in Chabad are now attracting large numbers of new members under the helm of young and charismatic Chabad Rabbis. Many are the biggest Shules in their respective countries. In Sydney, Australia I spoke at Central Synagogue, where Rabbi Levi Wolf has transformed a synagogue on the decline into a renowned powerhouse; for Rabbi Benzion Milecki whose years at Southhead Synagogue have made it one of the most vibrant in the Southern Hemisphere; and for Rabbi Motti Feldman, creator of the vibrant Dover Heights community.

Christian love vs. the obligation to hate evil

Published on March 30, 2011

Hearing about a bomb going off in Jerusalem is entirely different when you have two daughters living there. You scramble for your phone. You search out your kids. Any potential delay in their answering their cells is painful. You finally get through. Thank God, they’re all right. But what of those who aren’t? Those maimed and killed who were also someone’s daughters, sons, mothers and fathers?

Christian love versus the obligation to hate evil

Published on March 23, 2011

Portman’s bold attack on an anti-Semite and Huckabee’s untimely critique

Published on March 7, 2011

Obama and the myth of the first black president

Published on February 28, 2011

Why Amy Chua, the tiger mom, is wrong

Published on January 21, 2011

American Malaise

Published on January 3, 2011

Nixon’s allegation that the Jews have no pride

Published on December 13, 2010

Jewish ingratitude to Christians

Published on November 22, 2010

‘Nothing immoral’ about homosexuality: An Orthodox view

Published on October 18, 2010

Extravagant weddings and bar mitzvahs humiliate the Jewish community

Published on August 24, 2010

Russell Simmons is wrong about the Ground Zero Mosque

Published on August 18, 2010

Iran’s Descent Into Barbarity

Published on August 10, 2010

Al Gore’s Moral Confusion

Published on July 6, 2010

What McChrystal’s Firing Says about American Values

Published on June 28, 2010

BP, Kaddafi, and Britain’s Oil Comeuppance

Published on June 17, 2010

Helen Thomas and the Open Season on Israel

Published on June 7, 2010

The Provocative ‘Peace’ Flotilla that Ended in Tragedy

Published on June 2, 2010

Obama’s Jewish Charm Offensive

Published on May 24, 2010

Is a Giant Mosque at Ground Zero Justified?

Published on May 17, 2010

Open Letter to J-Street after their Attack on Elie Wiesel

Published on May 10, 2010

My Meeting with Pope Benedict

Published on April 28, 2010

When a Pope needs friends

Published on April 26, 2010

Condemn his report, but welcome Goldstone

Published on April 20, 2010

Does a kosher butcher’s fraud mandate a life sentence?

Published on April 16, 2010

A Fallible Pope, an Imperfect Church

Published on April 12, 2010

Obama and the Deafening Silence of American Jewry

Published on April 4, 2010

Obama’s Hospitality: A Question of Character

Published on March 29, 2010

The Tyranny of Perfection

Published on March 26, 2010

The Tyranny of Perfection

Published on March 26, 2010

The advent of Passover and Easter, which always fall around the same time, beckons a deeper discussion about one of the principle differences between Judaism and Christianity. In essence it is the difference between a values system based on struggle and a values system based on perfection.

Why American has no Chief Rabbi

Published on March 15, 2010

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Responds to Congressman Steve Rothman’s Attack

Published on January 5, 2010

Kaddafi Back in My Backyard

Published on December 22, 2009

Why Men Cheat and How to Stop Them

Published on December 14, 2009

The British Dare to Determine Who is a Jew

Published on November 9, 2009

Elie Wiesel, Mehmet Oz, and Cory Booker Join Me to Discuss Values (and Jon Gosselin listens in)

Published on October 19, 2009

How Rabbis Can Become Relevant

Published on October 19, 2009

Make Michael Jackson’s [Jewish] Dream Come True

Published on September 23, 2009

This coming Friday night, Sept. 25, NBC will air a one-hour, prime-time “Dateline” special hosted by Meredith Vieira, featuring a book I am publishing on the 30 hours of conversations I conducted with Michael Jackson. The book, “The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Private Conversation,” contains the most insightful, raw, painful and authentic conversations for public distribution that Michael ever had.

When Rabbis Fail Their Communities

Published on August 5, 2009

It’s become pretty rough being a rabbi in New Jersey, where your friends call you up to ask not what you’re planning to talk about in your Saturday sermon but whether you have a phone in your cell.

When Rabbis Fail their Communities

Published on August 3, 2009

It’s become pretty rough being a Rabbi in New Jersey where your friends call you up to ask not what you’re planning to talk about in your Saturday sermon but whether you have a phone in your cell.

Remember the victims, hate their killers

Published on December 4, 2008

What blow against Western decadence were they striking by targeting a Chabad house, whose entire purpose it is to spread spirituality to people whose lives lack it?

Jews must never use the term ‘shvartza’

Published on May 8, 2008

About a year ago I wrote a column about how the word "shvartza" must be retired forever. It is an insulting, offensive, and derogatory term that has no place in the mouths of people committed to ethics.

Stop ostracizing the intermarried

Published on July 26, 2007

The extreme practice of ostracization was justified by the belief that only by completely cutting off those who married out would we be making a sufficiently strong statement as to the extent of their betrayal, thereby dissuading those who might follow suit.