Nashville, Tenn. –Rabbi Mark C. Schiftan, the senior rabbi of Nashville’s oldest and largest reform Jewish congregation, was named one of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America as disclosed in Newsweek, ranking  No. 14.
 
Rabbi Schiftan leads The Temple- Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, Tenn. (Belle Meade) where he has served as its spiritual leader since July 1999. He previously served as senior rabbi for a historic urban congregation in San Jose, California known as Temple Emanu-El.

The list was published in the April 2008 edition of Newsweek. It was created by Michael Lynton (chairman & CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment), Gary Ginsberg (executive vice president of global marketing & corporate affairs, News Corp.) and Jay Sanderson (CEO and executive producer, JTN/JTN Productions).

Dubbing themselves as the “machers” (pronounced ‘makher’ and Yiddish for important person, big shot, or, “mover”), the long time friends built on their mutual interest in the future of American Judaism to put together the list. The ranking is the follow up to their overwhelmingly popular first edition of the Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America, released and published in Newsweek in 2007.

The machers’ selection of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis for 2008 was based on those rabbis they believe have what it takes to lead American Jews into the 21st century. Their criteria included:

• Ability to inspire congregational through scholarship and oratory;
• Success in growing and expanding congregation;
• Community leadership and innovation;
• Ability to meet spiritual and personal needs and goals of his/her congregation; and,
• Leadership within denominational movement.

In an editorial by Newsweek’s Society Editor Lisa Miller, she notes that these are trying times for American Jews. “The number of people who call themselves Jewish has dropped by nearly half since 1972, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, and nearly 60 percent of American Jews go to synagogue just once a year or never.

“The pulpit list is an effort to recognize people who are looking at the question of what it means to be Jewish in new and interesting ways, says Sanderson.’ ”

Rabbi Schiftan has developed community service and community relation’s projects in the congregations he has served, while guiding them from classical to mainstream and contemporary reform modes of Jewish worship. Here in Nashville, Rabbi Schiftan has led a major expansion of its adult and family education and lifelong learning programs; developed a diversification of congregational modes of worship; developed community and ecumenical relationships with The Temple, including Black-Jewish discussions, Muslim-Jewish dialogues, and an interfaith clergy trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.; and, forged the construction of a Habitat for Humanity House together with neighborhood churches, to name a few of his innovative initiatives.

“Rabbi Schiftan has the wonderful gift of empowering his congregants,” says Patty Marks, Temple president. “He encourages and engages us to get out there and learn to broaden our perspectives on Jewish theology and ethics, and to take that knowledge and share it with others through such outlets as teaching classes. For example, his influence led me to become a para - rabbinic fellow.”

Responsible for staff supervision and management while fulfilling the full range of pulpit, pastor, educational and communal duties, Rabbi Schiftan also manages to be a loving husband to Harriet, his wife of 21 years, and a father to his three children, Ari, Sarah and Jacob.

Rabbi Schiftan received his bachelor’s of arts degree, magna cum laude, from San Francisco State University.   Hebrew Union College of Los Angeles awarded Rabbi Schiftan a master of arts’ degree in Hebrew Letters; he was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom, www.templenashville.org, is Nashville, Tenn.’s oldest and largest Jewish reform congregation of over 750 members. The Temple serves the Middle Tennessee region, including Davidson and Williamson Counties.