Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, was named as one of the most influential people in the field of religion in the United States in a poll conducted by The Christian Century magazine, an influential ecumenical weekly. He was fourth in a list of 10 people in the poll of 35 religion writers and editors, 18 from secular news media and 17 from the religious press.
The first was evangelist Billy Graham, second was Martin E. Marty, an associate editor of The Christian Century and a professor of history of modern Christianity at the University of Chicago, and the third was President Carter.
Respondents termed Tanenbaum “the most recognizable Jewish name,” a man who “has had much to do with improving Christian-Jewish relationships in this country,” as one who “has more contacts than anyone else within and without Judaism,” and as a person who helped forge “the Jewish-evangelical detente.” According to The Christian Century, which reported the results in its Jan. 18 issue, this was the first time in recent years that a Jew and a rabbi made the poll.
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