Jerusalem Post Ranks 50 Influential Jews

Jon Stewart took #7 on the Jerusalem Post list. Image by Getty Images

By Michael Kaminer May 31, 2012

Mazel tov, Benjamin “King Bibi” Netanyahu. You’re officially the most influential Jew in the world, according to the Jerusalem Post’s just-released ranking of the world’s 50 most significant Semites.

And good on you, (Jon Stewart #7). The Post thinks you’ve got more juice than Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (#9) and Eric Cantor (#19) —and all of you rate higher than Shimon Peres (#22) and George Soros (#38).

But the Post’s choices — Canadian rapper Drake at #16? Natalie Portman at #36? — have sparked some good-natured hand-wringing in the blogosphere.

“Lists like these… inevitably raise hackles,” groused the JTA’s The Telegraph blog.”But this one — provided without explanation — is particularly perplexing.”

As the blog notes, Ruth Messinger, the president of the American Jewish World Service, is ranked at No. 6, ahead of Cantor, “Daily Show” host Stewart, Israeli President Peres and Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul whose money fueled Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign and who bankrolls one of Israel’s largest dailies, Yisrael Hayom.

Here are another few head-scratchers, via JTA: “Comedian and satirist Sacha Baron Cohen beats the commander of Israel’s Air Force, Amir Eshel (I guess the pen really is mightier than the sword). Mayim Bialik (No. 30) beats George Soros (No. 38). Two of the top five on the list are from Facebook, but Sergey Brin of Google doesn’t appear on the list at all. J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami gets No. 15, but AIPAC’s leader doesn’t make the top 50.”

The Forward’s own Forward 50 was one of the “hackle-raising” lists named by the JTA; former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords topped the 2011 roster, with President Barack Obama taking the honorary #51 spot.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO