Among the Top Five this year, a diverse group bound by the hotly contestedelection which includes President-Elect Obama's new Chief-of-Staff, RahmEmanuel, his national campaign finance officer, Penny Pritzker, kosheractivist Rabbi Morris Allen and Sarah Silverman, comedian and creator ofthe edgy, widely viewed YouTube video, "The Great Schlep." The entirelist is available at Forward50 2008.

According to Forward Editor Jane Eisner, "Jews played an outsized role inthe presidential election campaign and, by the looks of it, will continueto do so in the new Obama administration. This was also the year thekosher meat industry faced its greatest legal, consumer and ethicalchallenges and in the process exposed major lapses in the U.S. justice andimmigration systems, prompting rabbis of all denominations to examine themoral dimension of a central Jewish tenet."

The Forward is making a rare exception to its all Jewish list with itssymbolic #51 spot naming Postville, Iowa Catholic Priest Paul Ouderkirk,who led the effort to feed, clothe and house dozens of immigrant detaineesfired from the Agriprocessors Kosher slaughterhouse in Guatemala andelsewhere. Some of the 400 arrested by Federal agents were imprisoned andare now under house arrest, with no support, waiting to testify asgovernment witnesses and then be deported. "Father Ouderkirk displayedunusual leadership and compassion by helping displaced workers and theirfamilies survive. At times it has seemed as if Father Ouderkirk and thegood members of St. Bridget's were among the few in this sad story willingto do the right thing," Eisner explains.

In addition to the Top Five, this year's most influential list featuresindividuals whose influence falls within the specific areas of Politics,Money, Culture & Media, Community, Religion and Food.

In a hotly contested election year, politics reigns supreme in that Forward50 category with nearly a third of the nominees chosen from that arena.Among the notable Democrats are Barney Frank(D-MA), Dennis Ross, and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL).Republican Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA), Jewish Republican CoalitionExecutive Director Matt Brooks, and McCain supporter Senator Joe Lieberman(I-CT), also made the section.

Among the notables in the Culture and Media Section are Adam Sandler forhis portrayal of an Israeli agent, Zohan, and actor Matthew Weiner fromTV's "Mad Men." Academy Award Host and liberal "Daily Show" host JonStewart (Liebowitz) appears once again on the list, while conservative FoxCommentator and Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol makes his debut thisyear. The sole Sports entry, five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, madewaves at the Beijing Olympics this year, earning her a spot on the roster.

Money is also on most people's minds this year and it was no different inthe Forward 50. Among those in this newly created section arephilanthropist and Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson, philanthropistMichael Steinhardt, and Morris Talansky, a prolific fundraiser whoadmittedly passed funds to outgoing Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The Forward 50 is not based on a scientific survey or a democraticelection. Names have been suggested by readers and by the Forward staff.Each year's compilation is a journalistic effort to record some of thetrends and events in American Jewish life in the year just ended and toilluminate some of the individuals likely to be in the news in the yearahead.

Membership in the 50 doesn't mean the Forward endorses what theseindividuals do or say. They were chosen because they are doing and sayingthings that are making a difference in the way American Jews, for better orworse, view the world and themselves. Not all of them have put theirenergies into the traditional framework of Jewish community life, but allof them have consciously pursued Jewish activism as they understand it, andall of them have left a mark.

Please visit www.forward.com for the complete list of the Forward 50membership for 2008 or email alc@alavin.com for a PDF file of the article.

ABOUT THE FORWARD: The Forward, published weekly since 1990, is widelyregarded as American Jewry's essential newspaper of record.TheJewishDailyForward.Com (www.forward.com) is the daily updated, onlineversion of America's most influential Jewish weekly. The Forward iscommitted to rigorous reporting and balanced, thoughtful commentary onnews, politics and culture in the Jewish world. The award-winning staff hasenhanced the paper's reputation for incisive, hard-hitting reportage with apopulist, progressive spirit that was the paper's hallmark since theoriginal Yiddish version began publishing in 1897. Headquartered in NewYork, the newspaper is owned by the Forward Association, Inc., a 501(c) 4corporation. It is published on Fridays and is available on newsstandsnationwide as well as by subscription. For more information,visit www.forward.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: "TheJewishDailyForward.com"refers solely to the daily, updated website (www.forward.com); it is anaccurate reference only when the "dot com" is included. The weekly printednewspaper is correctly cited only as the "Forward." When referencing theprinted newspaper, please do not cite "The Jewish Daily Forward." That namerefers to the historic Yiddish-language print newspaper, which is nowpublished only weekly.

2008 FORWARD 50 LIST

Top 5 Picks:

Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) -- Known in Washington as "Rahmbo" for histake-no-prisoners style, Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel is, in the eyesof most Democrats, an ideal choice to serve as Barack Obama's White Housechief of staff. Emanuel, who will turn 49 this month, will bring to theObama administration his experience as an advisor in Bill Clinton's WhiteHouse and as chair of the Democratic Caucus in the House ofRepresentatives. A former ballet dancer, Emanuel is described as one of themost talented political hands in Washington. He is expected to help the newpresident achieve ambitious goals by running a tough White House anddrawing on his strong ties in Congress. The son of an Israeli father and anAmerican mother, Emanuel grew up in a Jewish home and visited Israel everysummer vacation. During the Gulf War, he volunteered for the Israeli army.His three children attend Jewish day school in Chicago. Emanuel's father,Benjamin, was a member of the Irgun, a right-wing underground organizationthat operated during the British mandate in Palestine. But Rahm is known asa centrist who supports the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Insiderscredit Rahm Emanuel with orchestrating the 1993 historic handshake betweenYitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat by advising Clinton to grab the two leadersby the arms and make the moment happen.

Jeremy Ben-Ami -- Jeremy Ben-Ami has at least two reasons to smile. Thisyear, Ben-Ami, 46, launched JStreet, a progressive pro-Israel advocacylobby meant to offer a counterweight to AIPAC, which liberals like himperceive as too hawkish and unrepresentative of views held by most AmericanJews. JStreet, where Ben-Ami is executive director, is doing more thanadvocacy. To have an impact on the political scene, it has set up apolitical action committee, JStreetPAC that supports a series ofCongressional candidates. Ben-Ami, whose grandparents were among thefounders of Tel Aviv and whose father was born in Israel, has worked incommunications and politics both in Israel and in the United States formore than two decades. He served as President Bill Clinton's deputydomestic policy adviser, managed Mark Green's New York mayoral campaign andserved on Howard Dean's presidential campaign before working for a publicrelations firm and eventually on the JStreet project. Staunch Jewishsupport for Barack Obama -- exit polls showed that he carried about 78% ofJewish votes -- despite months of rumor-mongering about his alleged Muslimfaith offers succor to Ben-Ami's contention that the vast majority of Jewsdo not vote solely on Israel but, like other Americans, considerbread-and-butter issues.

Penny Pritzker -- As a member of one of Chicago's wealthiest families,Penny Pritzker comes from a line known for its business acumen. But perhapsnobody in the family has pulled off a financial feat that tops the vauntedfund-raising machine she helped build for Barack Obama as his nationalfinance chair. Though Obama's troubles in winning over Jewish voters werea key story line in his presidential race, Jewish support helped him makethe national scene. Pritzker is one of a cadre of prominent Chicago Jews --including the Crown family, Abner Mikva and Lee Rosenberg -- who knew Obamaas a state senator and helped form the key support for his 2004 Senate run.When Obama decided to make his long-shot presidential bid, he tappedPritzker to help him raise the cash he needed. Pritzker, in turn, helpedforge the most successful fund-raising campaign in American politicalhistory, merging a flood of small internet donations with traditionalDemocratic big money. With the campaign over, Pritzker, 49, may return tohelping run her family's Hyatt hotel chain. Or maybe not. Her name is beingfloated in Washington circles as a potential Secretary of Commerce.

Sarah Silverman -- It would have been reasonable to assume that comedianSarah Silverman had pushed the boundaries of Jewish humor as far as theycould possibly go with a one-liner she delivered in her "Jesus is Magic"tour a couple of years back. "I was raped by a doctor," she says, hertrademark shayna punim all wide-eyed innocence, "which is so bittersweetfor a Jewish girl." This year, Silverman, 37, went further: Not only didshe create a pro-Barack Obama monologue that gleefully skewered the politediscourse around the purported racism of some elderly Jewish voters, hervideo got into so many e-mail inboxes that comic Jackie Mason, a JohnMcCain supporter, responded with an indignant monologue of his own.Silverman's election monologue may have been more popular than it wassuccessful. The video was a promotion for "The Great Schlep," a Jewishorganization's effort to get young Jews to fly to Florida and sweet-talktheir grandparents into voting for Obama. Reportedly, only about 100grandkids showed up. But Silverman is having a pretty good year: Hersitcom, "The Sarah Silverman Program," is in its second season on ComedyCentral, and she won an Emmy for her anniversary present to her on-again,off-again boyfriend, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, a video in which she has atorrid affair with Matt Damon, starring herself and, well, Matt Damon.Bittersweet stuff.

Morris Allen -- Rabbi Morris Allen was ready for his moment in thespotlight this year: leading a Jewish food revolution. Since 2006, Allen, acongregational leader in suburban Minneapolis, has been the most vocalcritic of Agriprocessors, the country's largest producer of kosher meat.After heading a committee that investigated and criticized workingconditions at the plant, Allen, 53, helped devise a new system, known asHekhsher Tzedek, or Justice Certification, to evaluate the workingconditions under which kosher food was produced. The Hekhsher Tzedek spoketo thousands of years of Jewish tradition about business ethics and playedinto a larger burgeoning American fascination with where our food comesfrom. It all came to seem like brilliant foresight when Agriprocessors'Iowa plant was the target of an immigration raid in May. The HekhsherTzedek became a national phenomenon and a rare galvanizing point for thestruggling Conservative movement. While the Justice Certification at firstgenerated intense opposition among large segments of the Orthodoxcommunity, even some of these rabbis acquiesced to the logic of bringingsome oft-forgotten Jewish ethics back into practice.

Plus One (51)

The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk -- The May immigration raid that hitAgriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, was an unusualJewish story: The people arrested in the raid had worked in the Postville,Iowa, plant so that Jewish consumers could have affordable kosher meat. Yetthe job of cleaning up the humanitarian mess that followed that raid wastaken up not by the local Jewish community but by Postville's Catholicchurch and its leader, Father Paul Ouderkirk. Ouderkirk, who has spent mostof his life running Hispanic ministries at Midwestern churches, is part ofa long Catholic tradition of ministering to the underprivileged of LatinAmerica, no matter where they live. Before the raid, Ouderkirk waspractically the only local voice to speak out about indignities endured byAgriprocessors workers. Ouderkirk, 75, acted despite having retired fromSt. Bridget's Catholic Church. After the raid, Ouderkirk gave up whatleisure time he had to take on the full-time job of helping the hundreds ofimmigrants tossed out. He led the church's efforts to raise money for theworkers. He soldiered alongside Paul Real, the church's lay pastor, andVioleta Iseman, an Agriprocessors employee turned social worker. The churchhas been the only source of food and shelter for dozens of workers who werearrested and released. Ouderkirk and his team went still further, providingwarmth and protection.

POLITICS:

6. Howard Berman -- Filling the shoes of the late Tom Lantos is not an easytask. Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, ran the HouseForeign Affairs Committee with a passion for global human rights and alively temper. When Representative Howard Berman, a fellow CaliforniaDemocrat, took over as chair this year after Lantos' passing, he changedthe style and tone dramatically, but committee members treated him with thesame level of respect they had shown Lantos. Berman, 67, has won praisefrom both sides of the aisle for his deep knowledge of issues and hisfairness, which stands out in the Capitol Hill scene. It was his Jewishfaith that brought Berman to take an interest in foreign policy. "I was aZionist before being a Democrat," he said, adding that concern over thefate of Israel led him to focus on international affairs in Congress. Inhis congressional work, Berman is known to be a strong supporter of Israel,though he did let his staunch liberal colors show when he used hischairmanship to block a resolution calling for tough measures against Iran.Anti-war groups had argued the resolution was a step toward militaryaction.

7. Matt Brooks -- Few can claim a bigger hand in shaping the Jewish debatein this year's presidential contest than Matt Brooks, the executivedirector of the Republican Jewish Coalition since 1990. In that role, heand the RJC served as the de facto Jewish outreach arm of both theRepublican National Committee and John McCain's presidential campaign.Brooks, 43, was a driving force behind the blitz of advertisements thatfilled Jewish newspapers and Web sites (including the Forward's) raisingquestions about Barack Obama's judgment and commitment to Israel, andlinking him to such figures as Patrick Buchanan and Iranian presidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad. The ads didn't just spur debate, they poured fuel on afire to cast doubt on Obama's fitness for the Oval Office. The messageswere no doubt controversial, frequently misleading and sometimes flat-outwrong. But there was no denying they were effective in causing many Jewswith long histories of voting Democratic to at least reconsider thatallegiance. Brooks began his political career as state chairman of theMassachusetts College Republicans while still an undergraduate at BrandeisUniversity. In 1988 he managed Jack Kemp's presidential campaign inMassachusetts and later was the national field director for PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush's Jewish outreach effort. Brooks, an avowed poker player,went to Las Vegas to unwind after the election. "I'm such a pariah thisyear," he said.

8. Eric Cantor -- Although he may have lost the title of John McCain's leadJewish voice to Independent Joe Lieberman, Representative Eric Cantoremerged from the 2008 elections as the No. 1 Jewish Republican. At 45, theVirginia ultra-conservative is viewed among House Republicans as a risingstar. He made it to McCain's vice presidential short list. In Republicancircles, Cantor is frequently mentioned as a possible 2012 presidentialcontender. The four-term congressman, who represents the Richmond area,serves as the Republican chief deputy whip, a job that put him in thespotlight during September's fierce debate over the Wall Street bailoutplan. Cantor stood up against Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of playingpartisan politics, and later played an instrumental role in convincingfellow conservative Republicans to reconsider the deal. Cantor, who keepskosher and attends synagogue, is the only Jewish Republican in the House.While his Democratic colleagues enjoy monthly bagel meetings sponsored byRepresentative Henry Waxman, Cantor set up his own forum of JewishRepublicans, who meet periodically and invite guest speakers.

9. Steve Cohen -- It was an extraordinary year for Representative SteveCohen, the freshman congressman from Tennessee. While his colleagues in theclass of 2006 were trying to make their voices heard, Cohen was taking onthe toughest issues for a politician: race and religion. RepresentingTennessee's Ninth District, which is 60% African-American, Cohen was wellaware of the race issue early in his political career. In 1996, he lost aprimary election to Harold Ford Jr. and said it was "impossible" for awhite candidate to win in a black community. Eight years later he provedhimself wrong, winning the House seat by a significant margin. When hearrived in Washington, Cohen was successful in passing a resolutionapologizing for slavery, the first statement of its kind from a federalbranch of government. But in his home district, this was not enough. In the2008 primary race, his rival Nikki Tinker, who is African-American, ran adsjuxtaposing Cohen with Klansmen and criticizing him for visiting "ourchurches" while opposing prayer in schools. He won the primary by a 4-to-1margin. Cohen, 59, is a fourth-generation Tennessean with a distinctSouthern accent and a lively sense of humor. Although he comes from alargely conservative state, he has liberal views on most social issues. Hewas also among the first politicians to be endorsed by the dovishJStreetPAC.

10. Barney Frank -- This year's financial meltdown catapulted DemocratBarney Frank, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, tocenter stage. During tense days in late September, as the American creditmarket ground to a halt, Frank played a major role in shaping the WallStreet bailout plan and getting it approved. The outspoken, and at timesshort-tempered, congressman from Massachusetts shuttled between meetingswith the Treasury secretary, House Republicans and his own party members inan effort to deliver the deal. After the vote, Frank stood proudly withcongressional leaders in front of TV cameras to announce victory. In his27-year career in Congress, Frank, 68, has made history before. He was thefirst leading politician to come out as gay in 1987, and has since carriedthe flag of civil liberties and gay rights in Congress. Growing up in a NewJersey family with a strong Jewish identity, Representative Frankfrequently draws upon the idea of tikkun olam as a driving force behind hiswork on civil rights and assisting the needy. Frank holds a 100% votingrecord on liberal issues, but is at times at odds with his colleagues fromthe left on issues relating to Israel and the Middle East. He is a strongsupporter of the Jewish state.

11. Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- The first Jewish woman to sit on the UnitedStates Supreme Court has occupied that seat now for 15 years. But, aslongtime court watcher Linda Greenhouse noted, this year was the first timethat Ruth Bader Ginsburg "found her voice, and used it." Twice during thecourt's 2008 spring session, Ginsburg offered forceful oral dissents fromthe bench, a rare move for any justice and one that Ginsburg -- a quiet,polite, white-glove kind of woman -- had never before taken. But the casesinvolved abortion and workplace discrimination, two issues that have longbeen at the forefront of Ginsburg's remarkable legal career. Observers saythat Ginsburg, 75, has dropped some of her notable collegiality and becomemore vocal and passionate this year because of the growing conservatism ofthe court under Chief Justice John Roberts. As the only woman left amongthe nine justices, she is thought to be particularly concerned aboutupholding the liberal values that have been the cornerstone of a careerthat has taken her from Brooklyn to Harvard to the highest court in theland.

12. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) -- Only eight years have passed since SenatorJoseph Lieberman of Connecticut was the Democratic nominee for vicepresident, an acclaimed moral voice and a historic figure as the first Jewto appear on a major party ticket. Today he stands at the edge of thewilderness, a four-term lawmaker at home in neither party. Democrats arefurious over Lieberman's sharp-tongued campaigning this year for JohnMcCain. But the bad blood goes back further. The only Orthodox Jew onCapitol Hill, Lieberman was an enthusiastic booster of President Bush'sIraq war policy in 2003. Angry Democrats replied by virtually ignoring hisprimary bid for president in 2004 and sinking his Senate re-election bid inConnecticut's 2006 primary. Even Jewish voters, his strongest base,abandoned him in droves. He ran for Senate anyway as an independent andwon. Returning to the Capitol, he sat with wary Democrats, providing their51st vote to control the chamber. They rewarded him with the influentialHomeland Security committee chairmanship. That was then. Today Lieberman,66, is a conundrum. Liberals despise his hawkish defense views, but don'trelish losing his vote -- nor alienating Orthodox Jews. Republicansmistrust his liberal record on domestic affairs. He is threatened with lossof his powerful committee chairmanship. Few admit it, but he's become theembodiment of the centrist's lonely plight in a polarized Washington. In away, his future is our future.

13. Mik Moore -- One of the big stories of the presidential election wasBarack Obama's Jewish problem, real or perceived: E-mails said Obama was aMuslim and wanted to destroy Israel. Old Jewish retirees declared that theywouldn't vote for a black man. Among Jewish voters, polls showed Obama atonly 60%, which would have translated into the worst election result forany Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1980. Yet in the end, Obamapolled 78% of the Jewish vote, a solid showing by any historical measure.And a healthy portion of the credit goes to Jewish activists like MikMoore, a community professional who organized grass-roots outreach tosoothe Jewish fears and boost Jewish enthusiasm for Obama. Moore, the sonof noted Jewish historian Deborah Dash Moore, co-founded the Jewish Councilfor Education and Research, one of a host of grass-roots groups thatincluded rabbis, Israelis and Jewish studies scholars who backed Obama.JCER achieved its greatest prominence with The Great Schlep, an effort toconvince Jewish youngsters to travel to Florida (or least at least call) toconvince their grandparents to vote for Obama. The idea was a reprise ofMoore's Operation Bubbe from four years ago, but this time a heartfelt andfoul-mouthed video promotion by comedian Sarah Silverman spread likewildfire and gave the movement traction.

14. Dennis Ross -- Until this year, Dennis Ross was the ultimate diplomat.Ross, the longtime lead negotiator in the Middle East for the firstPresident Bush and for President Bill Clinton, spent more than a decadetrying to hammer out deals between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Afterleaving government in 2000, he reflected upon the failure of the peaceprocess and offered advice on the topic from his perch at the WashingtonInstitute for Near East Policy. He also moonlighted as a Fox News foreignpolicy commentator and as chairman of the board of a think tank set up bythe Jewish Agency to focus on the future of the Jewish people. This year,the 59-year-old Ross ventured into the brave new world of politics,advising Barack Obama on the Mideast and campaigning for him in Jewishstrongholds such as Florida to bolster Obama's pro-Israel credentials. Rosshas lamented the Bush administration's belated and lackluster peacemakingefforts in the region and is hopeful an Obama administration willrededicate Washington to a genuine peace agenda while dealing moreefficiently with Iran's nuclear ambitions. He will undoubtedly providewisdom to the president-elect's policymakers to help them achieve acomprehensive peace agreement, a goal that has eluded the presidents heserved and the ones he observed.

15. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) -- It's sometimes hard to believe thatit's been only four years since Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultzbecame the first Jewish woman from Florida to be elected to Congress.That's because she's wasted little time moving up the ranks on CapitolHill. She not only won a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee, butalso joined the "college of cardinals" as one of its powerful subcommitteechairs -- overseeing Congress' own budget. Smart, quick, ambitious andtenacious are some of the descriptions used to describe this 42-year-oldmother of three, who represents parts of Dade and Broward counties in adistrict with the third largest concentration of Jews in America. Her HouseDemocratic colleagues tapped her to help chair their "Red to Blue" program,which directs funding and support to races where Republicans may bevulnerable. Politically adroit, Wasserman Schultz, a staunch supporter ofSenator Hillary Rodham Clinton's, pivoted and enthusiastically backedBarack Obama's presidential campaign when it became obvious that Clinton'sbid was done. Her support was welcomed by Obama's campaign, which was quickto utilize Wasserman Schultz to reach out to Jewish and female voters.

16. Robert Wexler (D-FL) -- At a time when many Democrats in Congressbacked Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Representative Robert Wexler took arisk. As co-chair of Barack Obama's Florida campaign, Wexler often remindedaudiences that he was one of the first Jews to support Obama for presidentlong before it was fashionable, and long before many of his older Jewishconstituents in the Sunshine State warmed up to Obama. Such loyalty earnedWexler, 47, a prime spot speaking about Israel and the Middle East duringthe Democratic convention. As a member of the House Foreign AffairsCommittee since his election in 1997, Wexler will likely continue to haveObama's ear and be a sounding board on Jewish and Middle East matters inCongress. Known for a prosecutorial style, this lawyer will probably havehis hand in a number of pressing domestic and foreign policy issues. Withinthe Foreign Affairs Committee, he is chairman of the Europe subcommitteeand a member of the Middle East subcommittee. He also serves on the HouseFinancial Services and Judiciary committees. Wexler voted to give the Bushadministration authority to invade Iraq, but he has been a frequentadministration critic and called for hearings on whether to impeach VicePresident Dick Cheney.

COMMUNITY:

17. David Borowich -- This year, the organizers of Salute to Israel, anannual New York City parade celebrating Israel's Independence Day, had aproblem: It was Israel's 60th birthday, and they were concerned that, asin years past, not many Israelis would show up. So they called DavidBorowich. Borowich is the founder and honorary chairman of Dor Chadash, afour-year-old organization that brings together two distinct groups of Jewsin America: Israelis and those who are not. The group's events range fromhuge nightclub parties with an Israeli dance music soundtrack to concertsand films featuring Israel's biggest artists and filmmakers, to anopen-mike discussion with Elie Wiesel. Young Jews, both American andIsraeli, show up in droves. For Israel's 60th, Dor Chadash organized acelebration at Radio City Music Hall that was billed as the largest YomHa'atzmaut celebration outside of Israel. Borowich, 38, has a biographythat suits the bridge-building nature of his job: After growing up inKentucky and New York, but before becoming a Wall Street executive, he madealiyah and served in the Israeli army. Today, he spends his spare timeserving on the boards of Jewish and philanthropic organizations.

18. William Daroff -- Eyebrows were raised in the Jewish community whenWilliam Daroff was appointed three years ago to head the Washingtonoperation of the United Jewish Communities. Daroff came to the job after along career in the Republican establishment and had served as deputyexecutive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. His background didnot seem in line with the purpose of the UJC's Washington office: advancingfunding for social services. But Daroff, 41, quickly turned his assumeddisadvantage into a benefit. Upon stepping into his new post, Daroff shedhis partisan colors and worked with both parties to advance sociallegislation and funding. The UJC, an umbrella organization of Jewishfederations, administers more than $7 billion in government funds thatprovide services for Jewish elderly, sick and needy. Through its Washingtonoffice, the group is a significant stakeholder in government decisionsdealing with Medicare, Medicaid, housing and aid to families. Daroff hasbeen successful in pushing forward these issues. Yet his work exceeded therealm of Jewish interests. He became a significant player in advancing therevised Americans with Disabilities Act and lobbying for a bill providingequal care for the mentally ill. His positions have at times put Daroff atodds with the Bush White House, but his earlier affiliation did not stophim from criticizing the Republican administration.

19. Esther Safran Foer -- If the novels of Jonathan Safran Foer arerefreshingly free of cartoonish matriarchs, perhaps some credit is due toEsther Safran Foer, the author's very un-cartoonish mother. Esther Foermay not be as famous as the best-known of her three writer sons, but shehas been a macher in Washington, D.C., since before he was born. Thefounder and president of a public relations firm called FM StrategicCommunications -- and the onetime press secretary to 1972 Democraticpresidential hopeful George McGovern -- Foer, 62, now works full time inthe Jewish community as the executive director of Sixth and I, a D.C.synagogue winning rave reviews for its eclectic programming and ability todraw a crowd. Sixth and I's four-year-old synagogue and cultural centermeet in a 100-year-old building at the corner of the streets that gave itits name. In the last few months alone, the synagogue, under Foer'sdirection, has hosted programs that range from talks by Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and author Salman Rushdie to performances byindie rock star Jenny Lewis and reggae sensation Mattisyahu. And it doeshold religious services. When the shul opened its High Holy Days servicesfree to the public this year, the waiting list for tickets nearly reachedthe four-digit mark.

20. Abraham Foxman -- Emerging from a nasty dispute over his opposition toa Congressional resolution acknowledging genocide in Armenia, AbrahamFoxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, turned to hisbread-and-butter issue: anti-Semitism. For more than 20 years as head ofADL, Foxman has thrown his weight around to denounce bigotry in Europe,Muslim countries and the United States. He has warned that the currentfinancial meltdown has revived old canards about Jewish money and power.This year, Foxman took aim at what he sees as a more subtle form ofanti-Semitism: the argument laid out by two mainstream scholars, StephenWalt and John Mearsheimer, who claimed the Israel lobby is skewing U.S.foreign policy in favor of Israel and to the detriment of the nationalinterests of the United States. In response, Foxman penned a book, "TheDeadliest Lies: The Israeli Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control," blitzedthe media and hit the circuit to rebuke what he perceives as a dangerousrehashing of dual-loyalty suspicions regarding American Jews. While somecritics bemoan his excessive zeal, Foxman remains, at 68, a fixture of theJewish communal world here and abroad, one whose voice will continue to beheard.

21. Howard Kohr -- On the morning after she lost her final primary race toBarack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton showed up at the American IsraelPublic Affairs Committee's policy conference, where she shook hands behindthe scenes with the victorious Obama. John McCain was there, too. Onceagain this year, AIPAC has demonstrated its central role in America'spolitical scene and Howard Kohr, the group's executive director for thelast 12 years, was there to make sure that doesn't change. At 52, Kohr isknown as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington. He is wellconnected with leaders and policymakers of both parties. The crowd at theAIPAC policy conference might have seemed overly enthusiastic for McCain,but Kohr and the lobby's leadership managed to cultivate close relationswith Obama and his top advisers, ensuring AIPAC would remain a key playereven as administrations change. Kohr has succeeded in keeping AIPAC abovethe fray of the inner disputes of the Jewish community. For the first time,this year AIPAC faced a competitor in JStreetPAC, a true challenger in thefield of pro-Israel lobbying. Yet AIPAC did not seem to take a hit. AIPACcontinued to flourish, increasing its funds and membership, moving to a newheadquarters in Washington and maintaining its political clout.

22. David Saperstein -- Since the advent of the modern politicalconvention, no rabbi had given the invocation on the night of thepresidential nominee's acceptance speech. That is, until this year, whenRabbi David Saperstein, 61, stood in front of a massive outdoor audience inDenver and offered a blessing before Barack Obama's historic nomination. Asdirector of the Washington, D.C., Religious Action Center for ReformJudaism for more than 30 years, Saperstein is no stranger to politics. Hisofficial biography boasts that he has been called the "quintessentialreligious lobbyist on Capitol Hill." But in a town filled with advocatesfor particular causes, the soft-spoken Saperstein has distinguished himselfby gaining wide respect from members of all faiths, thanks to years ofactivity in building advocacy coalitions on social issues and foreignpolicy. He has been a leading force in the Save Darfur Coalition andcurrently co-chairs the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, comprisingmore than 50 national religious denominations and educationalorganizations. An attorney, writer and speaker, Saperstein has positionedthe Reform movement, the nation's largest Jewish denomination, in theforefront of progressive politics. "We pray for America, that it may everbe a light unto the nation," he intoned on that starry night in Denver, "abeacon of freedom, human rights and economic opportunity."

23. Daniel Sokatch -- When Daniel Sokatch -- head of the California-basedProgressive Jewish Alliance and a poster boy for Jewish social justiceactivism -- was tapped this spring to lead San Francisco's Jewish CommunityFederation, many in the Jewish communal world were surprised. Could acharismatic liberal known for galvanizing young activists translate hisbrand of leadership to a consensus-oriented federation? While he has beenon the job for only a few months, expectations run high. Sokatch, 40, madea name for himself as PJA's first executive director. In eight years at itshelm, he helped shape the fledgling group into an innovative andinfluential Jewish presence on Los Angeles's multi-ethnic activist scene.Today, PJA boasts some 4,000 members. It has offices in Los Angeles and SanFrancisco. If Sokatch can do for San Francisco's federation -- which hasfloundered in recent years -- what he did for PJA, he could end upproviding a new model for North America's ailing federation system.

24. Hadar Susskind -- Although almost everyone who's anyone on Capitol Hilland in Jewish federations knows Hadar Susskind, few understand his jobtitle: Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).He is the person in charge of translating Washington politics for Jewishcommunal leaders and bringing their concerns and priorities to the ears ofpoliticians. For the past two years, Susskind, 35, has been part of a driveto take Jewish advocacy to the field of social justice. His work made theJewish community a player in this year's effort to pass the new farm billin Congress. Jewish farmers are scarce, but Susskind focused on alittle-known part of the bill dealing with food stamps, and became adriving force in bringing about passage of the bill and increases inassistance for thousands of families in need. A former infantry soldier inan IDF combat unit and a former kibbutznik, Susskind views himself as bothAmerican and Israeli. His work has taken Jewish lobbying away from itsforeign policy focus and has made the Jewish community a partner in thepolitical debate on poverty, hunger and social assistance.

FOOD:

25. Susie Fishbein -- The author of six cookbooks in five years, SusieFishbein has achieved an international following and a deeply devoted fanbase. Her wildly popular Kosher By Design series, published by ArtScroll,has sold more than 300,000 copies. The latest in the collection, "Kosher ByDesign Lightens Up," had about 25,000 pre-orders three weeks before it wenton sale November 17. And it's no wonder. At first glance the books mightseem too sleek and trendy for real-kitchen use, but Fishbein, 40, hasfine-tuned the art of producing stylish, well-organized tomes that areapproachable and, on page after page, practical. Most of the ingredientsare simple and can be found in regular supermarkets. Perhaps mostimportant, the Oceanside, N.Y.-native has achieved a delicate culinarybalance that is often lacking in the world of modern cookbooks and strictlykosher cuisine. The recipes, which are reviewed by an Orthodox rabbi, don'texactly resemble the traditional fare that Bubbe used to make (no leadenmatzo balls or bland chicken here), but they're not overly exotic orintimidating, either. Rack of lamb with fig-marsala sauce, sweet-and-sourbrisket, zucchini-leek soup with ginger cream, and of course, Fishbein'stri-colored matzo balls are among the hundreds of dishes that have earnedthe kosher diva her nickname.

26. Menachem Genack -- As the kosher meat industry nearly fell apart overthe last year, it was Rabbi Menachem Genack who was trusted to hold thingstogether. As the CEO of the country's largest kosher supervisor, OU Kosher,Genack, 60, was sought out by people inside and outside the industry afterthe largest kosher meat producer in the U.S., Agriprocessors, was hit withan immigration raid, criminal charges and eventually bankruptcy. Thesequence of events had the potential to cripple the supply of meat toobservant Jews across the country, but Genack avoided showing any signs ofpanic. At the beginning, his slow and steady leadership disappointed manyliberal voices in the Jewish community, who wanted him to take moreforthright action against Agriprocessors. Later on, when the weight ofevidence piled up against the company, Genack was willing to disappointmany in the Orthodox community by demanding that Agriprocessors change itsleadership. This slow and steady approach has not been enough to stop theimplosion of Agriprocessors -- and the human and animal suffering that camealong with it -- but Genack has supplied a modicum of sanity to an industryin crisis.

27. Aaron Rubashkin -- It is safe to say that Aaron Rubashkin did not wantto become famous this year. Rubashkin was happy to labor behind the scenesfor the last few decades, turning his family business, Agriprocessors, intothe largest producer of kosher meat in the country. His children have runthe operations on the ground, but the octogenarian Rubashkin has been backin Brooklyn making the big decisions. Those decisions helped the companygrow, but they also led it down the path to trouble. Agriprocessors' hiringand pay policies resulted in a federal immigration raid on the plant inPostville, Iowa, earlier this year. Since then, Rubashkin and his familyfaced a number of criminal charges that eventually led the company todeclare bankruptcy. The company's problems have sparked a protest movementand, in turn, changed the way people think about kosher food. None of thiswould have happened without Rubashkin. While the final judgment about himwill be rendered in the courts, his trial in the media has already changedminds.

28. Nigel Savage -- Remember the summer blackout of 2003 in the Northeast?Lots of people used it as an excuse not to leave home, but about 100 hardysouls schlepped their bicycles to Long Island to kick off a four-day bikeride at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, thanks to Nigel Savage. Savage,who hails from Manchester, England, is the environmentalist impresariobehind Hazon, a Jewish outdoor education group formed in 2000. Not onlydoes Hazon hold annual bike rides to raise money for Jewish environmentalprojects, it runs community-supported agriculture programs (support forsmall farmers = fresh produce for urban Jews!) throughout the UnitedStates, Canada and Israel. Recent entries on the organization's foodpolitics blog, "The Jew and the Carrot," run the gamut from a warning aboutpesticide-covered etrogim to a recipe for warm barley salad to an advicecolumn by "The Shmethicist." Hazon threw itself into the debate overethical kashrut last December when it publicly slaughtered a goat at itsannual food conference to raise consciousness about meat production. Savagehelped found the New York chapter of the British-based Jewish educationalgroup Limmud, and even had a previous life as a Wall Street-type inEngland. According to his Web site, one of his proudest accomplishments isthat he may be "the first English Jew to have cycled across South Dakota ona recumbent bike."

RELIGION:

29. Denise Eger -- When anti-gay marriage activists put forth Proposition8, the California ballot initiative seeking to ban gay marriage, RabbiDenise Eger wasted no time in organizing Jewish opposition to the measure.While the ballot initiative ultimately prevailed on November 4, Egernevertheless demonstrated her ability to raise the profile of gay rightsissues within the Jewish community and spur people to action. The foundingrabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood's gay and lesbian Reformsynagogue, Eger shepherded efforts to pass a resolution by the Board ofRabbis of Southern California opposing Proposition 8. In a huge turnout bythe board's 290 members, ninety-three percent voted in favor of theresolution. Eger, 48, also helped organize the L.A.-based group Jews forMarriage Equality and was a founding president of L.A.'s Lesbian, Gay &Bisexual Clergy Association. A vice president of the Board of Rabbis forthe past six years, Eger is next in line to assume its presidency. If she,indeed, becomes president -- which could happen as early as next May --Eger would be not only the first woman to lead the Southern Californiaboard, but also the first gay or lesbian.

30. Dayle Friedman -- The Jewish community in America is aging, and fewhave responded to this demographic challenge with the passion andcreativity of Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman. As a Jewish nursing home chaplainfor many years, Friedman pioneered spiritual work with the elderly. Now asdirector of Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism at theReconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA, she is playing aprophetic role in awakening communal attention to the needs of this grayingpopulation. Hiddur's mission is to enable the elderly to engage in theirown spiritual connections and contribute to the broader spiritualcommunity. Friedman, 52, trains rabbis and other Jewish professionals todevelop the skills needed to deal with the ever-growing number of bubbesand zaydes in synagogues, care facilities, hospitals and in their ownhomes. In 2008, she reached a broader audience with a new book, "JewishVisions for Aging: A Professional Guide for Fostering Wholeness." With herever-present smile and engaging manner, Friedman has also become a championof pushing past the stereotypes that narrowly define the elderly. "Myexperience is that elders are often more open-minded than younger people,"she wrote recently. Just as her older congregants were able to embrace herwhen she started out as a young female rabbi, Friedman, in her work,encourages all of us to respect the wisdom and potential of age.

31. Jill Jacobs -- When Rabbi Jill Jacobs first introduced a living-wagemeasure in 2006 to the Conservative movement's top legal body, sheencountered heavy opposition. But the 33-year-old Jacobs, therabbi-in-residence at Jewish Funds for Justice in New York, didn't give up.Two years later, in May of this year, her teshuvah, or halachic opinion,arguing that Jewish employers should pay their employees a living wage andstrive to hire union workers was finally adopted by the RabbinicalAssembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. A 2003 graduate of theJewish Theological Seminary, Jacobs has been a champion of social justiceissues -- including equality for women, gays and lesbians -- since herstudent days. Later, as education director at the Chicago-based JewishCouncil for Urban Affairs, she initiated a program that trained studentrabbis to incorporate social justice work into their rabbinate. Jacobs'spirited activism bodes well for the Conservative movement, which, if it isto thrive in the 21st century, could surely use more of her kind.

32. Yosef Kanefsky -- Yosef Kanefsky, 45, shattered a long-standingOrthodox taboo when he suggested last year that Jewish leaders ought to atleast consider the idea of a divided Jerusalem. The senior rabbi of B'naiDavid-Judea Congregation, a growing Los Angeles Modern Orthodox synagogue,Kanefsky has come to represent the left wing of Modern Orthodoxy on theWest Coast. But Kanefsky's October, 2007, opinion piece, "An OrthodoxRabbi's Plea: Consider a Divided Jerusalem," published in L.A.'s localJewish weekly, the Jewish Journal, thrust him into the spotlight wellbeyond the confines of the Jewish world. The Los Angeles Times published astory on the waves of controversy his piece generated. A former associaterabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, a New York congregation led bymaverick Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss, Kanefsky has long taken positions atodds with the Orthodox establishment. He has allowed women to read from theTorah in their own single-sex services. As a past president of the Board ofRabbis of Southern California, he is far more engaged with the non-OrthodoxJewish world than most. But his nontraditional approach seems to be helpinghis cause: Over the past year, Kanefsky's congregation of 300 families hasgrown by more than 10%.

33. Elie Kaunfer -- No one has been more central to the admittedlydecentralized world of independent minyanim than Elie Kaunfer. The son of arabbi, Kaunfer, 35, co-founded the influential Kehilat Hadar minyan onManhattan's Upper West Side, then was ordained himself at the JewishTheological Seminary. Since ordination, he and two fellow rabbis -- ShaiHeld and Ethan Tucker -- have set up Mechon Hadar, an organizationdedicated to drawing the minyanim into a national network and anegalitarian summer yeshiva. Kaunfer has become a link between the small,low-budget minyanim and the big-dollar Jewish donors who are itching tosupport them. (What could be more promising than young Jews who alreadylike Judaism?) Kaunfer coauthored a study that brought national attentionto the minyanim, and he and his comrades have proved to be masters attapping federations and large foundations. This year, Tucker received atwo-year, $200,000 fellowship from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation andKaunfer got another $225,000 over three years from the Avi Chai Foundation.They intend to pour the money into taking Yeshivat Hadar full-time, makingit the country's first full-time, egalitarian yeshiva. Kaunfer and hisfellow minyan boosters say they have no interest in denominationalpolitics. But with a national network of prayer groups and their own schoolfor teaching Jewish texts, Kaunfer and friends may find that they have amovement on their hands.

34. Moshe Kotlarsky -- As vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, theeducation arm of Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky overseeswhat amounts to a fourth main wing of Judaism, with some 5,000ultra-Orthodox rabbis ministering to a vast, loosely affiliated flock ofmostly nonobservant Jews. His network includes about 4,000 institutions in70 countries -- synagogues, community centers, parochial schools andpreschools from Albuquerque to Zaire, plus prison chaplaincies and a fewdrug rehab clinics. It's estimated that a Chabad facility opens upsomewhere every week. Kotlarsky, 59, runs the empire with a firm butaffable hand, approving new locations, selecting field rabbis (shluchim)and, most important, doling out millions to the field from a donor-fundedfoundation he controls. He also heads the fast-growing Chabad on CampusFoundation, operating at more than 100 colleges. One of Chabad's mostvisible public faces, he travels tirelessly to address gatherings worldwideand presides genially over the massive annual shluchim convention in NewYork. Outsiders sometimes question Chabad's aggressive way of moving intosmall communities, especially in Eastern Europe, and some fret about thefree liquor that often seems to help boost attendance. In 2008, Chabadtraditionalists attacked Kotlarsky over the movement's visible presence atthe Beijing Olympics. Chabad's late leader, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson,considered the Olympics idolatrous because they originated as a religioustribute to pagan Greek gods. Still, few argue with success.

35. Julie Schonfeld -- A generation ago, the battle over women's rights inthe Conservative movement was at least as heated and divisive as themovement's more recent squabbles over gay rights. But the ease with whichmovement leaders welcomed Julie Schonfeld's recent appointment as the firstfemale executive director of the Rabbinical Assembly, the union forConservative rabbis, is a welcome reminder of how the radical can, overtime, become the commonplace. That said, Schonfeld will face a tough task.The Conservative movement has struggled for years with declining membershipand an aimless sense of mission, and many observers have attributed themalaise to organizational leadership that was out of step with the times.The first step in that turnover came in 2006, when Arnold Eisen replacedIsmar Schorsch as chancellor of the movement's flagship Jewish TheologicalSeminary, a move that gave Conservative Judaism a welcome shot in the arm.But anxieties, and expectations, remain high. If anybody can see the taskthrough, it may be Schonfeld. She has experience in the pulpit. She hasspent the last seven years working at the RA, so she knows the plumbing.And she is deeply involved with the liberal social causes that many see asessential to the Conservative movement's future. If Schonfeld canrevitalize the RA, then her gender may be the least for which she isremembered.

MONEY:

36. Sheldon Adelson -- For the past few years, casino mogul Sheldon Adelsonseemed to be running the tables. Once a newsboy from Boston, Adelson, 75,catapulted into the ranks of the world's wealthiest when his casino resortcompany, Las Vegas Sands, went public in 2004. By 2007, he was the thirdrichest man in America, according to Forbes, and the world's richest Jew.His money brought Adelson influence. He became a big donor to Jewishcauses, including AIPAC and Birthright Israel. Rumors flew that he wouldgive away $200 million per year to Jewish causes. When word emerged that hewould bankroll a conservative advocacy group, Freedom's Watch, Republicanshailed him as the conservative answer to George Soros, a believer withbottomless pockets. Now this gambler's luck may be running out. Over thepast year, Sands stock has plummeted more than 90 percent, costing Adelsontens of billions of dollars on paper, and his spot as the richest Jew.Freedom's Watch hasn't taken off. And Adelson appears to be scaling backhis Jewish giving, leaving organizations like Birthright scrambling to makeup the difference. Just as damaging for the reclusive Adelson, the NewYorker published a damning profile that pulled back the curtains on hisbrass knuckles approach to both business and politics. But as the profilemade clear, Adelson's a fighter. Don't count him out yet.

37. Morris Squire -- While the under-40 set is generally perceived as theforce behind creative, cutting-edge Jewish philanthropy, Morris Squire isturning that perception on its head. The man behind Moishe Houses -- one ofthe most thinking-out-of-the-box Jewish philanthropic endeavors of the lastdecade -- is an 85-year-old philanthropist, former psychologist and painterwho has funneled millions of dollars into his Jewish communal livinghouses. In 2006, while other donors were funding trips to Israel, Squire --who made his money as the owner of health-care facilities -- came up withan idea: Subsidize the rent on a house for a bunch of 20-something Jews,give them a monthly program budget and let them do the rest. Squire'svision of free-form Jewish community building, in which house members getup to 75% of their rent covered in return for organizing loosely definedJewish events -- even poker nights -- is expanding. In the last two years,26 Moishe Houses have cropped up around the globe from Oakland, CA, wherethe first one was established, to Johannesburg, Beijing and Warsaw. Squiredivides his time between Santa Barbara, CA, and Cambodia. Sometimes ittakes an octogenarian to generate some of the Jewish world's mostinnovative philanthropy.

38. Michael Steinhardt -- Michael Steinhardt seems to think he has foundthe next big idea for building Jewish identity, and now he is putting hismoney where his mouth is: Hebrew language charter schools. In May,Steinhardt's foundation announced that it was backing an application for anew Hebrew language charter school in Steinhardt's childhood hometown ofBrooklyn. It's an idea that suits the legendary former hedge fund manager-- bold, controversial, Jewish, but not religious. Steinhardt, 68, hasalready talked about building a national network of charter schools, sothis could be the first of many. While one Steinhardt venture may soon becoming to New York, another recently disappeared when the Steinhardt-backedNew York Sun closed its doors. Though technically neither Jewish nor aphilanthropy, the Sun was essentially both. Editor-in-chief Seth Lipsky(who founded this newspaper, with backing from Steinhardt) had hoped tofound anold-fashioned New York broadsheet with a neoconservative slant, a paperthat would challenge the New York Times. The Sun was hawkish on Israel andpassionately pro-business. It was not, however, much of a business itself,losing millions of dollars a month. Steinhardt and his fellow backersoffered to put up more money if new investors (one might say donors) couldbe found, but with financial markets in shambles and print newspapers infreefall, the additional millions were lacking, and the Sun set.

39. Morris Talansky -- Israel was riveted by stories that emerged in Mayfrom a Jerusalem courtroom: a Long Island businessman who was an ordainedrabbi plying the prime minister with expensive gifts, including cigars,wine and an Italian vacation. Oh, and about $150,000 in cash. Thebusinessman, Morris Talansky, 75, said he "loved" Ehud Olmert, and that theembattled prime minister loved him back. Though Olmert disputes theallegations and the level of affection, the testimony led to his profferedresignation and to Talansky's own baffling disgrace. The Brooklyn-bornTalansky had left the pulpit to work in his family business, then became aprolific fundraiser for Israeli causes, including Shaare Tzedek hospitaland the New Jerusalem Fund, which he jointly founded with Olmert to raisemoney for projects in the capital. When Olmert decided to run for mayor ofJerusalem, Talansky was a strong backer. And when Olmert rose to becomeprime minister, Talansky thought his political time had come. Now the primeminister is a lame duck and his erstwhile friend is back on Long Island, nolonger the man to call to get to the leader of Israel.

MEDIA & CULTURE:

40. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett -- After years of being one of thekeenest analysts and supporters of Jewish art, New York UniversityProfessor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett edited the definitive book on what"Jewish" has meant across the gamut of modern art. With essays tracing aplethora of different types of art she interrogates the concept ofJewishness without falling into essentialism. She co-edited the "Art ofBeing Jewish in Modern Times" (Jewish Culture and Contexts) with JonathanKarp. Previously, she wrote a book with her father, Mayer Kirshenblatt,titled, "They Called Me Mayer July," which was a finalist for the 2007National Jewish Book Award. Her interviews with her father provided theframework for his retrospective paintings of Jewish life in Poland beforeWorld War II. In 2006, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett won the National Jewish BookAward for her book "Writing a Modern Jewish History: Essays in Honor ofSalo W. Baron." These three books have cemented her place as a producer ofand writer about Jewish art -- a fact recognized by the Foundation forJewish Culture, which honored her this year. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is acultural driving force. She co-convened the Working Group on Jews,Religion, and Media at NYU's Center for Religion and Media, and the Jewsand Performance colloquium, jointly sponsored by the Jewish TheologicalSeminary and NYU.

41. Jeffrey Goldberg -- Not every blogger lands exclusive interviews withthe two leading presidential contenders. But Jeffrey Goldberg isn't justany blogger. Goldberg, 43, is known for his in-depth reports on politicsand foreign affairs for publications like The New York Times Magazine, TheNew Yorker and The Atlantic -- not infrequently filed from scary spots likeTaliban madrassas. Lately, Goldberg, a national correspondent for TheAtlantic, has established himself as the elite media's leading Judaicscribe -- from an Atlantic cover story exploring Israel's existentialchallenges to a much-discussed New York Times op-ed scolding AmericanJewish leaders for having "allowed the partisans of settlement to conflatesupport for the colonization of the West Bank with support for Israelitself." A former staffer for the Forward, the Long Island-reared writermade aliyah and served in the Israeli army, before returning to the UnitedStates. His 2006 book, "Prisoners: A Muslim & a Jew Across the Middle EastDivide," recounted his complicated relationship with a Palestinian prisonerhe once guarded. Goldberg's two presidential candidate interviews, postedon his Atlantic blog, focused on topics such as Israel, Iran, Hamas and thepresidential hopefuls' favorite Jewish writers. John McCain, we learned,likes Herman Wouk; Barack Obama enjoys Philip Roth; both have a soft spotfor Leon Uris. And Goldberg, we discovered, isn't shy about posing aquestion containing a Yiddish word like "kishke" to a future president.

42. William Kristol -- William Kristol wears many hats: magazine editor,newspaper columnist, television pundit and neocon scion. This year, headded another hat: shadchan, or matchmaker. Kristol -- New York Times op-edcolumnist, Weekly Standard editor, Fox News Channel commentator and son ofneoconservative pioneers Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb -- wasperhaps the most prominent public voice urging John McCain to tap SarahPalin as his running mate. As early as June, Kristol -- a longtimeMcCainiac who strongly supported the Arizona senator's unsuccessful 2000presidential bid -- was confidently predicting that Palin would be pickedfor the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket. "She's fantastic," he gushed on Fox.Kristol, of course, got his wish. With a Democrat in the White House,neoconservatives on the defensive and a backlash brewing over Kristol'saggressive pro-Palin advocacy, Kristol, 55, is likely to find his influencediminished. Still, he occupies some prominent pulpits and is sure to be avigorous participant in debates over the Republican Party's future. Aforeign-policy hawk and staunch ally of the Israeli right, Kristol and hisWeekly Standard may also find new purpose as critics of an Obamaadministration's approach to the Middle East.

43. Shmarya Rosenberg -- It's hard to believe now, but when ShmaryaRosenberg started his blog, FailedMessiah.com, he was an observant,Orthodox Jew. When the blog got him into hot water with the local OrthodoxJewish community, Rosenberg chose his blog and left his observance behind.In his blog, Rosenberg turns an obsessive and hostile eye on the Orthodoxworld. Day after day and night after night, Rosenberg, 50, trolls theinternet, digging up new stories of pedophilia, financial chicanery,political extremism and more in the ranks of the Orthodox. He has been aparticularly harsh -- and thorough -- chronicler of the many failings ofkosher meat giant Agriprocessors. One of Rosenberg's biggest moments camein July, when he nailed public relations firm 5W PR for posting comments onblogs under other people's names as part of its defense of clientAgriprocessors. 5W furiously denied the charges -- then confessed.

44. Adam Sandler -- Adam Sandler's movie,"You Don't Mess With the Zohan,"raked in an impressive $100 million at the domestic box office this year.Not since Paul Newman's 1960 epic "Exodus" has Israel played so big on MainStreet. Indeed, Sandler's "Zohan" grossed twice as much domestically asSteven Spielberg's 2005 Oscar-nominated drama "Munich," which likewisefocused on a war-weary Israeli terrorist-hunter who finds refuge in NewYork City. But whereas Spielberg used Israel's experience fighting terroras an excuse to offer a high-minded, post-9/11 morality lesson, Sandlerused it as an excuse to offer a spot-on spoof of Israelis' love of hummus,fondness for cheesy dance music and propensity for bluntness verging onrudeness. And compared with the tortured soul played by the goyish EricBana in "Munich," Sandler's hilariously impulsivecommando-turned-hairdresser seemed -- awful accent aside -- like a genuinesabra. "I know a few guys like Zohan," one young Israeli movie-goer toldthe Associated Press. Sandler's brand of humor may owe more to frat rowthan it does to the Borscht Belt, but the 42-year-old funnyman has neverbeen shy about loudly announcing his Jewishness -- whether he's abruptlydonning a yarmulke and tallit in his 2004 womanizer-falls-for-amnesiacflick "50 First Dates" or crooning about "people who are Jewish, just likeyou and me" for his instant holiday radio standard, "The Hanukkah Song."

45. Lipa Schmeltzer -- In the cloistered world of ultra-Orthodox Jewry,Hasidic singer Lipa Schmeltzer is a superstar. Mixing Hasidic musicaltraditions and contemporary pop sounds, the 30-year-old Skverer Hasid hasbecome something of a sensation -- though not an uncontroversial one. InMarch, Schmeltzer was set to headline a charity benefit at Madison SquareGarden's WaMu Theater. A little more than two weeks before the concert,some of American ultra-Orthodoxy's leading rabbinic authorities issued anedict banning attendance. They warned that the event would cause "ribaldryand lightheadedness." Schmeltzer honored the decree, and the concert wascanceled. But the ban generated a fierce backlash. Some people suggestedthat fanatics had misled the rabbis about the nature of the concert, which,consistent with communal norms, was to have separate seating for men andwomen. Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the Hasidic stronghold ofBoro Park, told The New York Times: "In all my 26 years of representingthis community, I can't remember anything that has so shaken the people."Schmeltzer, for his part, has continued making music -- and drawingappreciative crowds at public appearances. The title of his latest albumcan be seen as a rejoinder to critics who regard his pop-inflected songsand burgeoning popularity as threats to traditional Jewish values. It iscalled "A Poshiter Yid" -- Yiddish for "A Simple Jew."

46. Ilan Stavans -- Scholars want to be judged by the quality, not thequantity, of their work, but in the case of Mexican-born literary criticIlan Stavans, the numbers are inescapable. Simply put, the range and volumeof his writing and expertise -- and influence -- are astonishing. A tenuredprofessor of Latin American and Latino literature at Amherst College,Stavan has areas of interest that range from Latin American Jewry toSpanish and Yiddish literature, the immigrant experience, the evolution oflanguage and the cultural role of dictionaries. At 47, he has written nofewer than 20 books of fiction and non