Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Have Schtick, Will Travel
This month, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach becomes a family-adviser-on-the-road hosting a reality TV show, "Shalom in the Home," scheduled for prime-time broadcast on The Learning Channel.
Shmuley (as he likes to be called) is a former rabbi-in-chief at Oxford and the author of 16 books on family and marriage, including his latest, "Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children."
America may not need another show pairing our deepest familial dysfunctions with our obsession for navel-gazing, but it may need a Shmuley showcase. This one -- which has the rabbi touring the country in an Airstream trailer outfitted with video and audio gear to monitor and advise the 10 families he visits -- is compelling not only in its gimmicks but in its host's charisma and ability to identify and deal with deep-seated family woes.
Shmuley points out that he has more than a little experience in these areas. The child of a messy divorce, he says he vowed early on to help other families -- and to live his own life differently. (He's been married for 18 years; his eighth child was born in March, during the final week of the show's taping.)
His rabbinical work has not been without controversy, especially among ultra-orthodox Jews who criticized his popular Oxford L'Chaim Society, a student organization, for recruiting non-Jewish students as members and installing a black non-Jew as its leader. Neither did his frank discussions of sexuality and religion, especially in his book "Kosher Sex," go over well with traditionalists.
A former close relationship with Michael Jackson also raised eyebrows, even among the secular. A friend introduced him to the King of Pop shortly after Jackson left the Jehovah's Witnesses and was spiritually adrift. "Michael Jackson needed a rabbi," explains Shmuley. "He still needs a rabbi or priest."
The 39-year-old Shmuley is more than Dr. Phil with a Hasidic beard. And "Shalom in the Home," he says, is no nanny show about unruly kids: "It's about how Mom and Dad's relationship affects the whole family."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301367.html?nav=rss_health
This month, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach becomes a family-adviser-on-the-road hosting a reality TV show, "Shalom in the Home," scheduled for prime-time broadcast on The Learning Channel.
Shmuley (as he likes to be called) is a former rabbi-in-chief at Oxford and the author of 16 books on family and marriage, including his latest, "Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children."
America may not need another show pairing our deepest familial dysfunctions with our obsession for navel-gazing, but it may need a Shmuley showcase. This one -- which has the rabbi touring the country in an Airstream trailer outfitted with video and audio gear to monitor and advise the 10 families he visits -- is compelling not only in its gimmicks but in its host's charisma and ability to identify and deal with deep-seated family woes.
Shmuley points out that he has more than a little experience in these areas. The child of a messy divorce, he says he vowed early on to help other families -- and to live his own life differently. (He's been married for 18 years; his eighth child was born in March, during the final week of the show's taping.)
His rabbinical work has not been without controversy, especially among ultra-orthodox Jews who criticized his popular Oxford L'Chaim Society, a student organization, for recruiting non-Jewish students as members and installing a black non-Jew as its leader. Neither did his frank discussions of sexuality and religion, especially in his book "Kosher Sex," go over well with traditionalists.
A former close relationship with Michael Jackson also raised eyebrows, even among the secular. A friend introduced him to the King of Pop shortly after Jackson left the Jehovah's Witnesses and was spiritually adrift. "Michael Jackson needed a rabbi," explains Shmuley. "He still needs a rabbi or priest."
The 39-year-old Shmuley is more than Dr. Phil with a Hasidic beard. And "Shalom in the Home," he says, is no nanny show about unruly kids: "It's about how Mom and Dad's relationship affects the whole family."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301367.html?nav=rss_health
Comments:
I hear he's also filming a new movie, based on his book "Kosher Sex," in that trailer behind him.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: April 04, 2006 9:10 PM
: April 04, 2006 9:10 PM
did he get divorced or separated for a while? azoy dach zich mir
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : April 05, 2006 12:17 AM
: April 05, 2006 12:17 AM
ez dach zich mir as you don't know what you are talking about. He was never divorced, nor seperated.
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Comment Credit ---This article posted by : April 05, 2006 12:58 AM
: April 05, 2006 12:58 AM
