Shmuel Rosner is not a big fan of Newsweek’s "Top 50 Influential Rabbis" list:
Newsweek’s Top 50 Influential Rabbis list – an annual tradition – is not a feature I read very closely. The fact that it changes every year can explain why: in a real world of serious rabbis such list will change only very slowly and very rarely (Can you imagine: this year, Hillel is tops Shamai for the number one slot!?). The fact that Newsweek can tweak its list so quickly is testimony to one of three things:
1. Newsweek doesn’t do a serious job.
2. Rabbis aren’t as important as they used to be.
3. Both.
Click here to check out Jeffrey Goldberg’s name-by-name commentary on the list.
My two cents: This list has always been a confused exercise, mixing together rabbis whose day job is rabbi and rabbis who do other things. But the bigger problem is that the entire underlying premise seems to be that rabbis are the main ones driving Jewish life. If you want a more rounded understanding of who helps make the American Jewish world tick, then check out the Forward 50.
I do think you could make the argument that pulpit rabbis as a class are more important than anyone, but the Newsweek list gives them short shrift.
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