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Forward 50 2011
Burton Visotzky
In the stepped-up dialogue between American Jews and American Muslims, Burton Visotzky is in many ways the guy making things happen, quietly and off-camera, while others take high-profile bows. Visotzky, a rabbi who serves as the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, creates, organizes and participates in a stunning…
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Forward 50 2011 Sharon Kleinbaum
After nearly two decades as senior rabbi of what has become the world’s largest gay and lesbian synagogue, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum is no stranger to plaudits. Her efforts on behalf of gay rights, religious tolerance and peace have landed her on just about every possible list of outstanding…
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Forward 50 2011 Shmuel Goldin
After years of drifting rightward, Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic association is moving toward the center. That’s the message many rabbis gleaned from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s appointment in May as president of the Rabbinical Council of America. In the years preceding Goldin’s ascension, the more conservative wing of the RCA won key battles, notably curtailing the…
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Forward 50 2011 Anthony Weiner
As 2011 dawned, Anthony Weiner had just been re-elected to his seventh term in Congress, where he’d built a reputation as one of the most promising, telegenic and outspokenly liberal young Democrats. Representing a Queens-Brooklyn district that hadn’t elected a Republican since 1920 and was nearly 40% Jewish, his future seemed assured, and his $3.5…
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Forward 50 2011 Debbie Wasserman Schultz
This has been a challenging year for Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, but the upcoming year will be even tougher. As chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, the 45-year-old Wasserman Schultz has been spending her time in the political trenches, fighting Republican attacks and crisscrossing the country on behalf of struggling Democratic candidates….
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Forward 50 2011 Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is the owner of a big mouth and a good basketball team. This year, it was his team, the Dallas Mavericks, and not his antics that made headlines. In June, the Mavs triumphed over the Miami Heat in the NBA finals, their first-ever championship title, and Cuban let his players’ on-court performance do…
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Forward 50 2011 Jill Jacobs
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who has long been active in social justice circles, was tapped this April to run Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, a multidenominational human rights group. Jacobs, 36, is a former Forward columnist and onetime rabbi-in-residence at Jewish Funds for Justice. Though the Israeli branch of Rabbis for Human Rights is known for…
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Forward 50 2011 Mark Bittman
For many people, Mark Bittman’s name is synonymous with “The Minimalist,” the food column he wrote in The New York Times for 13 years, and later, the accompanying video series in which he prepared simple recipes for the Times’ Dining section. Through his column and numerous cookbooks, including “How To Cook Everything,” Bittman has made…
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Forward 50 2011 John Zorn
John Zorn, one of the most interesting forces in Jewish music today, is something of a legend as a saxophonist and composer in New York City’s downtown avant-garde music scene. This year saw Zorn, 58, present his expansive “Masada” collection of compositions with 12 different ensembles at Carnegie Hall — a few steps removed from…
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Forward 50 2011 Alisa Weilerstein
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein was rehearsing at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival in September when she learned that she’d been named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow. Noting her “technical precision” and “impassioned musicianship,” the MacArthur Foundation described her as “a consummate performer.” The $500,000 “genius grant” came during a year in which the 29-year-old hit her…
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Forward 50 2011 Dovid Katz
When the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City broached a plan to establish a “YIVO room” at the Lithuanian National Library in Vilna, passions were ignited among a small but significant group of scholars, historians and Holocaust survivors. Leading the charge was 55-year-old Dovid Katz, a former professor of Yiddish language, literature…
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