Shmuley Boteach

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In 1988, Boteach was sent at age 22 by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as "the Rebbe", as a Chabad-Lubavitch shaliach (emissary) to Oxford, England, where he served as rabbi to Oxford University's students for 11 years. During that time, he founded the Oxford University L'Chaim Society (in Hebrew, L'Chaim means "To Life"). The society grew to be the second-biggest student organization ever in Oxford, with a membership that included over 5,000 non-Jews. It attracted star speakers from politics, arts, and culture, including six Israeli prime ministers, former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, singer Boy George, football player Diego Maradona, and actor Jon Voight.

The society's members included American Baptist Rhodes Scholar, and future US Senator, Cory Booker serving as the group's co-president, Italian journalist and future United Nations official Maurizio Giuliano serving as speaker coordinator and treasurer, and American Mormon and future president of Coastal Carolina University Michael Benson also serving as an officer of the society. Future Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti was also a member of the society. Some Orthodox patrons became concerned about the percentage of non-Jewish members, and after Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson died in 1994, Chabad UK leadership asked Boteach to remove non-Jewish students from the society; others wanted Boteach to exclude gay students. Boteach refused on both counts, saying the Rebbe had loved non-Jews and regularly reached out to them; Boteach then changed the L'Chaim Society from a student society into an independent organization.

Later in 1994, after Boteach refused to cancel a speaking event featuring Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, he and Chabad split over the issue. Lubavitch leadership objected to the Prime Minister speaking, because Rabbi Schneerson before he died had opposed Rabin's peace deal proposal. After Boteach defied the suspension order, he was summoned to attend a beth din hearing at the Lubavitch World Headquarters. Boteach later confirmed that he was involuntarily terminated by Chabad—but said he still loved Chabad, and was raising his children in the Chabad tradition.

Excerpts from his best seller Kosher Sex were serialized in Playboy in 1998. Boteach at the time was the leader of Shabbat services at an Orthodox Willesden synagogue in north London, where attendance had more than doubled after his arrival. He resigned from his role at the synagogue. While he had received the support of England's Chief Rabbi, whose office issued a statement saying Boteach was an "imaginative talent... prepared to take risks in order to communicate an authentic Jewish message to a new generation," Boteach wanted to "spare Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks problems with his rabbinate and the London Beit Din" according to media reports.

In 1999, the British government's Charity Commission raised concerns over payments made by the L'Chaim Society. In September, the Charity Commission temporarily froze the Society's bank accounts as a "temporary and protective measure", citing concerns about "the application and control" of the charity's funds -- however, the Charity Commission released the funds three months later, in December. The Society had made payments on a north London home in which Boteach lived. L’Chaim Society officials explained that the payments had been made only after the Society had consulted with and followed the legal advice of charity experts at a top London law firm. The rabbi said: "This is a totally normal process in the United States." In the immediate wake of the announcement, he was banned from speaking at the New West End Synagogue by Chief Rabbi Sacks. The Charity Commission later found no evidence of wrongdoing, but determined that the mortgage payments were "difficult, if not impossible, to justify" under British law. Boteach reportedly repaid the £150,000 to the trustees, and the issue was resolved with Boteach being cleared.

In 2000, Boteach won the "Preacher of the Year" Award, out of all faiths in Britain, from The Times in London. The Jewish Chronicle described him as "the United Kingdom's most high-profile rabbi". Boteach was listed in the top 10 on Newsweek's "Top 50 Rabbis in America" in 2007 (when it described him as "the most famous rabbi in America"), ninth in 2008, seventh in 2009, and sixth in 2010. The Washington Post referred to him as "the most famous rabbi in America," and The Jerusalem Post named him one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

In 2013, Boteach was the commencement speaker for Southern Utah University, which granted him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

He has attracted both praise and criticism from fellow rabbis during his career. For example, after the release of his book Kosher Jesus, Rabbi Israel Zoberman wrote that Boteach "offers a well-written scholarly volume that is far from dry and is accessible to all, one that both honors and is critical of [Christians and Jews]," and Israeli-American Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews praised it as "courageous and thought-provoking". Similarly, Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel, while noting what Boteach could have added to his book to deepen it, concluded that it was a bold book and that he admired the courage of a Hassidic rabbi wishing: "to talk about Jesus in a manner that is respectful and kind. This is quite a rarity—especially when you consider the animus that most Hassidic and Haredi Jews feel toward Jesus.... All in all I admire his ... willingness to talk about a subject that has remained a forbidden topic of discussion in Jewish circles of all denominations... one can argue that Shmuley's Kosher Jesus should serve as a meaningful first step for many Jews wishing to promote a more truthful and meaningful dialogue with the Christian community." But in contrast, Jacob Immanuel Schochet, a Canadian Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, was fiercely critical, deeming the book to be heretical and asserting that it "poses a tremendous risk to the Jewish community," and saying that "it is forbidden for anyone to buy or read this book," and it "does more to enhance the evangelical missionary message" than any other book. A Chicago Chabad rabbi—who admitted that he had only read the title of the book—wrote an op-ed in which he asserted on that basis alone that the book was apikorus (heresy) and must be treated as such. In reaction, Australian Orthodox Chabad Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, while agreeing with some of what Boteach said and disagreeing with other points, wrote: "The suggestion that [Boteach] is a heretic is simply ludicrous". Rabbi Michael Samuel of Temple Beth Sholom in Chula Vista, California, opined: "Lubavitchers do not want to know anything about Jesus." Boteach, for his part, said: "We are the People of the Book. We aren't the people who ban books."

Boteach is noted for his flamboyance and self-promotion. In an article in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg referred to him as the "Baal Shem Tov of self-promotion". While promoting his book at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, explaining why he was there he said: "God gave 10 commandments at Sinai, and the 11th commandment, which they expunged but which has come down orally, is 'Thou shalt do anything for publicity and recognition.'" He later described the comment as merely a sarcastic remark.

Media career

In 2006 and 2007, Boteach hosted the one-hour prime time television series Shalom in the Home. The series, which ran for two seasons on the TLC network, was a reality show in which Boteach counseled dysfunctional families and gave advice to struggling couples about their relationships and parenting. Shalom in the Home attracted almost 700,000 viewers per episode, and was one of the cable network's highest-rated shows. In 2007 he wrote a book with the same name, based on the TV series. That year, The National Fatherhood Initiative gave him its highest award for his efforts in the television series. After the series ended, Boteach remained in contact with the families, counseling them, and having them over to his home.

In 2014, Boteach was featured in an episode of the Sundance Channel's Dream School reality television series. It was a non-fiction original series, which introduced troubled teen high school dropouts to mentors, in order to inspire the teenagers to turn their lives around.

On television, he has also made guest appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Dr. Phil Show, Larry King Live, Dateline NBC, The Today Show, The Howard Stern Show, The View, The O'Reilly Factor, and The Dr. Oz Show.

On radio, Boteach hosted a weekly nationally syndicated radio program on WABC called The Shmuley Show. It aired on Sunday evenings from 7-9 p.m. He was also host of his own daily talk radio show on the "Oprah and Friends" network on her XM radio channel.

Boteach has written syndicated columns for both The Huffington Post and The Jerusalem Post. He is also an op-ed contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other newspapers.

In March 2000, Boteach entered into an agreement with MatchNet (the creator of online dating site Jdate) to become its spokesman for three years, for an annual salary and stock options. After its initial public offering, the company sought to renegotiate his contract at a lower salary. According to his lawsuit, when he refused to renegotiate his agreement he was terminated right before his stock options vested. He claimed that MatchNet hired him to add legitimacy to its public offering, but never intended to fulfill its promises.

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