Which loudmouth and superrich Jews are known to JPost journalists?

Don’t check The Jerusalem Post’s 50 Influential Jews Of 2017 to know which Jews are the most influential at present. Its yearly Rosh haShannah attempt to embarrass itself again reveals no such thing. It only exposes ignorance and close-mindedness of Israel’s leading English newspaper writers.

Most of the people on their list I have never heard of. And I follow the news every day. The ones on their list whom I know have hardly any influence. It’s all a sham. Even Bernie Sanders and Rabbis Sacks and Lopes Cardozo are absent. Maybe people bought their placement?

Now, let’s first define what is and isn’t influential.

Influential is not someone who’s a servant to someone in power. They can be replaced or resign in a second, losing all their “power.” Powerful really means: you are pivotal, pull the strings on a global or national scale. People look up to you and listen to you, no matter what you do or say. You’re a leader, adored or despised.

Next: it is crazy to only collect (nominal) Jews for such a list. Gentiles with a warm heart to Jews in general, should be admitted too. People who respect, honor and like Jews, who promote the interests of the Jewish People. Would we exclude such staunch allies, then the list becomes merely an attempt at ethnic pride – and a failed one at that.

Speaking of promotion of Jewish interests: anti-Zionist and otherwise anti-Semitic Jews on the other hand should be excluded. That leaves out powerful anti-Zionists Jews like ever-presidential-hopeful Bernie Sanders and making-anti-Zionism-look-kosher Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn.

The JPost doesn’t say so explicitly but seems to be interested only in people alive today. Let’s make that restriction too. The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time has been done.

Now, that would make for an interesting list to read. Who should be on our list? I won’t try to be comprehensive. Just a few examples.

Top of the list, hate-him-or-love-him, Donald Trump. His love and admiration for Jews is there for all to see. Surely, he uses Jews, because they’re so easy to work with (responsible, docile, honest) but he also has this irrational tender spot for Jews.
Second place should be for Vladimir Putin, hate-him-or-love-him, who shares that same inexplicable warmth towards the Chosen People.
With excuses to number three, who just happens to be less powerful than numbers one and two, we have the first Jew, hate-him-or-love-him, Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s even on the JPost list. Other Israeli leaders should be on our list too, like, love-them-or-hate-them, Bennett, Liberman, Lapid, Rivlin.
Also Facebook boss, moral leader on wealth and supporter of medical research to end all illness, Mark Zuckerberg should be high on our list.
Love-them-or-hate-them, but such a list must have our Gedoilim, the leading Chareidi Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky and Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. They are widely listened to, and to exclude them is to exclude yourself.
A power player in any democratic state is the press and internationally powerful are international newspapers. David Horovitz, founder of the Times of Israel may represent a fine team of writers faithfully informing us around the clock what really is going on with Israel. Many journalists and commentators should be on such a list like Ilana Dayan. Possibly also people mostly known from TV but I don’t watch so I don’t know.
We are a moral people and still listen to rabbis. Modern-Orthodox leaders should be mentioned too, like, love-them-or-hate-them, Rabbis Sacks, Riskin, Lopes Cardozo and Boteach.
We must include Israel-promoters, love-them-or-hate-them, like Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Abraham Foxman and Nathan Sharanski.

You get the gist. These 19 would not be amiss heading such a list true to its title. Surely, not many rich, female, non-white or young people. But the powers that be are unequally shared, also today. What do you want to be, politically correct and pretending or truthful? I’m with the latter.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, an almost daily blog contributor to the Times of Israel, and previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is (partly) generated by AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. He doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit about what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and education contribute to his visions. * If you don't know the Dutch, get an American peek behind the scenes here: https://youtu.be/QMPp6h6r72M * To find less-recent posts on subject XXX among his 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. Yet, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people who don't deserve that. He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust, and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * His most influential teachers (chronologically) are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. * One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. He loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, anti-elitism, anti-bigotry and supremacy, for Zionism, Intersectionality, and non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, empowering therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids non-violently. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's being a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. He lives with his library in Jerusalem. Feel free to contact him. * His writing has been made possible by a (second-generation) Holocaust survivors' allowance from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1