Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Shalom in the Catholic Home: Shmuley Urges Pope To Have Shabbat Dinners

If doling out advice — from parenting to relationships to spirituality — to American Jews and Gentiles wasn’t enough, celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach has gone for the big score: the Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope.

By consulting with Rabbi Shmuley, the Pope joins the ranks of Michael Jackson and Oprah, both of whom have looked to the host of TLC’s “Shalom in the Home” for guidance. In a meeting last week, Rabbi Shmuley encouraged Pope Benedict XVI, who’s currently embroiled in yet another round of hullabaloo surrounding the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, to hop on board with his “Turn Friday Night Into Family Night” initiative.

By putting Friday focus on the family, “America’s Rabbi” contends the Catholic Church can clean up its tanking image and shift its opponents’ criticism away from same-sex marriage and abortion. In promoting a Shabbat-style dinner, Rabbi Shmuley educated His Holiness on his concept of the “triple two.” The dinner can be accomplished by inviting two guests, discussing two different subjects and giving one’s children undivided attention for two hours.

Call it Shalom in the Catholic Home.

Read Rabbi Shmuley’s account in its entirety here.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version