"America's Rabbi"

12 Kislev 5785 (13 Dec 2024)

“America’s Rabbi”. Try to visualize who would be deserving of such a title. Keep in mind two truths:

1. The United States is the leading global superpower with no close seconds. 

2. The US is a haven for Jewish life, personal liberty and human flourishing.

The individual deserving of such a title must be grand indeed. Comparable to the likes of Zerbavel, who lead us back to Israel under Cyrus the Great. Alternatively maybe like Philo Judaeus or Josephus; respected Jewish leaders under relatively benevolent rule. He would surely be a fair representation of American Jewry itself, dispensing Jewish wisdom while embodying American particularism. Basically Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks but the Yellowstone version. Well, in our case, the title of “America’s Rabbi” isn’t a knighted appointment like it is in London. In our case the title was all at once conjured, grabbed, and self applied by one man: Shmuley Boteach.

Shumely’s Purim costume after his clashes with Candace Owens. One of the most terrible looks a Rabbi could give.

As a native New Jersyian I have been familiar with Shmuley for quite a bit now since he first ran for the House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 9th district. He was summarily beaten by the Democratic incumbent but I do remember thinking in my youth how cool it was to see a Rabbi’s campaign posters planted all over the place. His rise to fame is well documented and comes replete with a portfolio of (albeit strange) celebrity contacts and reality TV showings. Well, 12 years have passed, and these days I recoil at seeing Boteach make public media appearances. Whether it’s unhinged shouting matches on Piers Morgan, embarrassingly ego-driven public demonstrations, or toxic defamation campaigns. I know I’m not alone. In this piece I seek to highlight several examples of why I think Shmuley should be resoundingly shunned or shamed from representing himself as a figurehead of American Jewry (or Jewry in general for that matter). Lest I be accused of stirring division or defaming a large Jewish profile with this essay, I’d only point out and say that this substack pales in comparison to the division and defamation Shmuley Boteach himself causes to little pushback.

Before I lay out my argument I think it’s important to point out that Shmuley has indeed occasionally been at the receiving end of antisemitic abuse. The consequences of being a public Jew are such. Nonetheless, I figure that we can call out bad behavior while standing against detractors who end up targeting Boteach. Though I’ve had a mildly distasteful opinion of Shmuley for a while I’ve generally elected to not highlight all his shenanigans on LEZM. Shining a light on distasteful behavior only elevates its public profile. However, given some of the egregious public behavior this past year I feel that having a more comprehensive public record serves as a PSA that hopefully reaches someone who could perhaps reign the man in. 

The Gay scandal

The red line for me was his patterned inquisition of other Jews in our community for completely nonsensical reasons. It may surprise some readers to learn that Shmuley decided to leverage his weight on social media to try and remove the Harvard Campus Chabad Rabbi from his position during the Claudine Gay saga. Shortly after her ridiculous testimony in front of Congress, Hanukkah came about and the Harvard Rabbi extended an invitation to Gay to join the campus menorah lighting ceremony. This is a campus tradition and one that's existed for years showcasing the administration's support for its resident Jewish community and vice versa. Rabbi Hershey Zachi, the shaliach at Harvard spoke extremely critically of the administration and of Harvard as an institution. He lambasted the silence from his fellow Harvard chaplains for not confronting chants of intifada and in front of Gay exclaimed that the Harvard Jewish community disowns her and the administration.

“We in the Jewish community are longing for a day that we could refer to the president, and all of Harvard, as ours too.”

Gay was right next to him as he delivered his speech. Personally, I consider this a true showcase of bravery. Instead of making the lighting ceremony private and disinviting the President, Zarchi kept our Menorah out in public and his words pointed directly to the adminstrations’s’ face. It was truly a modern macabbee moment. Well, Shmuley Boteach didn’t think so. Shmuley decided to launch a defamation campaign with the purpose to depose the rabbi from his position. His argument was that by tolerating Gay at the lighting Zarchi was actually displaying cowardice and catering towards antisemites. Zarchi, smartly, never responded to the deluge of Shmuley shenanigans. It’s also important to point out that Shmuley is guilty, of that which he accused Rabbi Zarchi of. It was only a year earlier when Boteach himself hosted Reverend Al Sharpton at a menorah lighting ceremony. Though Sharpton has somewhat sanitized his rhetoric when it comes to Jews, the Reverend was directly responsible for inciting the Crown Heights riots which saw synagogues vandalized and firebombed along with Jews abused in the streets. He’s never issued an apology for his role in it. And even more generally, his rhetoric on race relations are intensely toxic and divisive. Shmuley, for whatever reason, seems to think Sharpton has redeemed himself but I’m still waiting to hear a cogent reason as to why Shmuely himself is not a coward for cozying up to and legitimizing such a man. 

Targeting of the (((DailyWire)))

The pattern continues with his and his daughters targeting of the DailyWire (DW from here on out) and its Jewish employees. DW, under the leadership of Ben Shapiro, was very publicly embroiled in a controversy with one of its previous hosts Candace Owens. Owens is despicable, stupid, and an obvious antisemite. This however has been a revelation that's only unfolded in the later term of her tenure at DW. Candace began employment as a very standard conservative voice. Since the war started Candace publicly asserted that Israel is bombing christian children, that Mengele’s experiments on Jews during the Holocaust “smelled like propaganda”, and openly accused Rabbis of being drunk on christian blood. There’s not much room to interpret her animus other than being motivated by antisemitism. Boteach and his daughter decided to pile onto Ben Shapiro and DW journalist Kassy Dillon during the public spectacle and adding onto the massive wave of controversy already surrounding them. And how did the Boteach duo choose their line of attack? By calling Kassy a “weak kneed jew” and openly belittling her status as an Orthodox Jew. Shmuley’s daughter, in a truly childish showing, decided to share unflattering images of Kassy on X to accompany her attack as well. It’s an egregiously gross inquisition given that Kassy is a ger. Leaving aside the halachic prohibition of such rhetoric, it's also just plainly stupid. Akiva and Shapiro have both dedicated much of their time covering, highlighting, and defending Israel’s moral war against Hamas. Akiva herself was on the ground in Israel with IDF officials covering the war on the ground; not at all the action of a “weak kneed Jew”. This episode alone should have earned Shmuely a public gezerah in my opinion. Naturally, after Candace left DW, Shmuley in a self-glorification ritual claimed it was his “activism” that pressured Shapiro to remove her. I think he very much overestimates his social capital and very much misunderstands what activism is.

When he’s not publicly shaming proud Jews (or berating and filming teenage chabadniks for innocent trolling), Shmuley spends much of his time being entirely unhinged on social media. Pier Morgan, to his credit, has a talent for collecting the loons of society and getting them to shout at each other for views on Youtube. Shmuley, to his great discredit, plays right into the ploy. Nearly every showing he’s had on Piers’ show have brought along with them a bevy of comments ridiculing his clownish appearances. I very much hope the majority of Piers’ audience don’t associate Shmuley with the larger Jewish community but that’s potentially difficult for a gentile who’s first introduction to Shmuley is that as “America’s Rabbi”. I’ll also pay a quick moment of attention to Shmuley’s ill-informed choice to also appear on Alex Jones’ show in which he decided a wild conversation encompassing Alex’s “peepee”, kosher dildos, and Jesus was a wise decision. I honestly cannot understand the cascading series of terrible choices made. All of these decisions only serve to diminish the image of Jewish goodwill and civility in these great United States.

Shmuley in the lobby

The last example that I think services understanding how utterly deluded Shmuley has become is his most recent bout with the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami. As I mentioned earlier, being a public Jew comes with the unfortunate consequence of being especially targeted by antisemites. Well, during a recent stay at the hotel Shmuley was confronted by such a man. Faiz Akbar accosted Shmuley in the hotel lobby as a “baby killer” and during his tirade eloquently claimed that he would “fuck yo shit motherfucker”. Clearly a man of distinction and class. I would have sympathy for Shmuley if it wasn’t for his ridiculous antics after the fact. Despite this being an entirely verbal altercation with some low class moron Shmuley claims online that he was “almost murdered” in this exchange. He also labels the Fountainebleau hotel as a “sewer of antisemitism”. That would be a shocking revelation to the thousands of Jews who frequent and live in the hotel’s complex throughout the year, myself included.

I really cannot overstate how much worse it gets to defend against legitimate acts of antisemitism when Shmuely exaggerates the circumstances beyond rationality. His antics continue.

Instead of mounting the bulk of pressure on Akbar (which would actually yield a favorable result) he’s decided on law-fare and public demonstrations against the Fountainbleau hotel and specifically the Jews involved. Boteach’s entire Facebook feed is dominated by childish AI generated videos and posts mocking the Jewish owner and lawyer opposite his lawsuit. In a repeat fashion of his attack on Kassy Akiva he’s decided to mock the lawyer on his Jewish identity. Sean Burstyn, the lawyer who sent Shmuley a letter declining his entrance on the property has “learned nothing from Judaism except how to leverage his kippa for cash”, according to Boteach. He even goes farther to say that he should learn from Christianity since he’s not educated in Judaism. I can feel the internal Rabbi Immanuel Shochet in me screaming in ire at such a statement. If this rhetoric came out of a gentile’s mouth it would be resoundingly characterized as antisemitism.

I don’t think Shmuley realizes how deeply delusional and ill-advised his course of action is. More than likely he’s opened himself up to even deeper legal troubles in this episode making this a much larger public spectacle than what it needs to be. Though maybe that’s what he truly craves. On Dec 15 he’s scheduled a rally outside the hotel that’s surely going to feed his ego even more. I sincerely hope few people turn out.

“America’s Rabbi”. Well perhaps he’s not the kosher cowboy I’d personally envisage deserving of such a title. Perhaps he’s “America’s Rabbi” in the worst sense of the term: someone desperately seeking celebrity and public controversy to feed their own ego. A Rabbi emulating the most deranged behaviors that dominate Hollywood to at least be in the press, because after all: all press is good press.

I’ll finish with a personal experience. A couple months ago I attended a rally in Times Square to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of October 7. Without verifying, I bought tickets to the event forwarded to me by my mom. It turned out to be an event hosted by Shmuley’s “World Values Network” and at which his ego was the primary topic, not the war or the lives lost. “I did this and this celebrity is my friend and I fought Candace and I am the best fighter for Israel”. It turned out to be an ill organized event that was entirely exhausting and not meaningful in the slightest way. Instead of a heartfelt display of Jewish solidarity I felt like I was at the Shmuley show. There’s a lot more of his shenanigans I could write about but I think I’ve made my point. For now at least.

I only hope that eventually someone sensible that Shmuley respects could deliver reason to him on a personal level. Until then Shmuley remains our great misfortune.

- Lawless Levite