Religion Dispatches: Fake Rabbi Alert from Peter Manseau

In Religion Dispatches we read an illuminating and funny Fake Rabbi Alert essay by Peter Manseau. He takes down Rabbi Ralph Messer who bizarrely proclaimed as king “on behalf of the Jewish people” the Atlanta megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long. (It was so phoney, Long has since apologized to us Jews.) He also calls out Rabbi Dr. Mordehi Waldman who blew his shofar to announce the coming of the messiah one Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church.

Lord knows, there are plenty of phoney rabbis. So many that we had just about sworn off trying to keep up with the news of their celebrity goings-on. But then just when we thought we could move on to other stories, along comes another fabulous and fake holy man. Amen and hallelujah.

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WSJ: Tel Aviv is the World's Top Technology Business Hub

Here is confirmation from the WSJ of what many of us already knew.

...Who is going to be Europe's main technology hub? While London and Berlin both see themselves as claimants to the title, if you look at the numbers (and you take a Eurovision Song Contest view of the Continent) arguably neither can challenge Tel Aviv.

It was Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv's 13-year mayor and a former combat pilot, who, while London's Tech City was not even the subject of an interdepartmental memo, had got on with building a tech center second only to Silicon Valley. He did it not by installing high-speed fiber or hosting conferences. His approach, as he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, was much simpler.

"Tel Aviv had become a city that people used, not a city they lived in," he said. "We are creating a good place for hi-tech people to live in—I am doing it for the people working in hi-tech," he said.

It is the ''Field of Dreams'' model. If you build it, they will come. It is no coincidence that Tel Aviv was recently named the world¹s best gay city.

"It is about building an environment that is supportive," he said. Young digital entrepreneurs tend to be counter-cultural— attracted to cities that are vibrant, diverse and international. One third of the city is under the age of 35, and there is one bar for every 200 residents.

His bottom-up model—worry about the people—has proved successful.

According to a report commissioned by the city, Tel Aviv and its surrounding area, hosts more than 600 early stage companies. Access to venture capital is, per capita, 20-fold greater in Israel than in the rest of Europe. "If you take the amount of VC per capita, in Europe, it is $7. In the U.S. it is $72. In Israel it is double that," Jan Müehlfeit, Microsoft's European chairman asserted last year...

"God's Favorite Prayers"- innovation in Jewish Theology

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Times: Marvin Hier is the only Rabbi in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In a charming story, the Times asserts that Marvin Hier is the only rabbi in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "...Rabbi Hier...has been an active member for three decades. Teni Melidonian, a spokeswoman for the Academy, said he doesn’t know of any other rabbis among approximately 5,800 voting members..."

Yasher Koach, good job, Rabbi Hier.

"God's Favorite Prayers"- worthy of an Oscar

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Video: Andy Statman Trio with Ricky Skaggs at a Nashville Bluegrass Stomp

Great music. Tablet Mag has a new podcast on the Statman - Skaggs recordings. (Hat tip to Blog in Dm). Andy is an Orthodox Jew. Ricky Skaggs is a Christian who has won two Grammy awards for "Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album."

"God's Favorite Prayers"- another kind of Stomp

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Times' Ethicist Tackles Is SABBATH SHMOOZING Jewish? and Is it Kosher to Hand Out $50 Bills During Kaddish?

Signs of a slow ethical quandary day. The ethicist at the Times, Ariel Kaminer, has to be scraping the bottom of the moral barrel with a question like the one he covered this past Sunday from one "NAME WITHHELD" writer. Read it in all its gory details and you will see why anonymity is so essential.

SABBATH SHMOOZING

My synagogue is interviewing four rabbis. One, who lives nearby, comes every Saturday to pray and glad-hand. The other three can’t, because they don’t travel on the Sabbath. Isn’t it unethical of him to take advantage of his proximity? NAME WITHHELD

Attending those services isn’t unethical; it’s sensible. If you applied for a job at a bookstore, would you refuse on principle to visit until they made their choice? But if you find the rabbi’s behavior in the synagogue to be inappropriate (if, say, he hands out $50 bills during the mourner’s prayer), then cast your vote accordingly.

By the way, I get a lot of rabbi questions; priest and imam questions, not so much. Clerics of the world, tell us your quandaries!

A few Talmudic observations.

In a cold and nasty shul that we know, friendly glad-handing by anyone, including a rabbinic candidate, would be considered out-of-place, surely a negative in any search. And further, most people agree that it makes no sense to consider it an "advantage" for a candidate to appear in shul to campaign for a job. We all know that the rabbi with the most relatives on the board of directors will get the job no matter what. And what indeed is "inappropriate" about handing out $50 bills in synagogue? Are we still talking during Sabbath prayers here? Does Kaminer mean it is too little or too much for someone to hand out money in synagogue. And is it especially egregious to hand out money during the Kaddish? We'd think during the Shema or the Amidah would be a more questionable time to distribute cash.

Now lots of people complain about the Times' awful coverage of Israel. This ethicist query is a new low in their coverage of synagogue matters. We are considering canceling our subscription!

It is ethical to buy "God's Favorite Prayers" today

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Heebow Video Parody of NFL's Tim Tebow

Here is a silly parody of the Tim Tebow football phenomenon -- Heebow. Worth a few good laughs.

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Huff Post: Best Paid Pastors

Jaweed Kaleem writes in the Huffington Post about the top earning pastors in the US. He explains,

From church closings and foreclosures of houses of worship across the nation to the limited number of clergy jobs for new rabbis, imams and pastors, the recession has hit religious Americans just as it has affected the tens of millions of the country's jobless.

Even before the recession, most spiritual leaders of small towns and big cities across the United States earned meager salaries, with annual pay for Catholic priests and imams ranging from $25,000 to $30,000 and the average Protestant pastor making $40,000 a year, according to a recent survey.

Yet, even in difficult times, some churches and pastors are soaring. While not a definitive guide, HuffPost Religion has has compiled a slideshow of some of the best paid pastors in America. For several, their high income comes not only from employment as pastors, but also from TV appearances, book sales and charity management.

For the lucky few, being a pastor can mean being a multi-millionaire.

We like the description of how Rick Warren "reverse tithes." Warren is one of Barack Obama's friends,

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, has made tens millions of dollars off his books, such as "A Purpose Driven Life." He's made so much that, in 2005, he returned 25 years of salary to the church and stopped accepting new paychecks. Warren and his wife say they are "reverse tithers" who give away 91 percent of their income to charity and live off nine percent.

In our understanding, the reverse of giving 10% of your income would be taking 10% of something or other. Ah well, imprecision, whatever.

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