Jews invented Hollywood and Vegas, baby.
Michael Coren is not an antisemite and Rabbi Shmuely has "issues".
Kathy takes a further look at the Rabbi's appearance on Michael Coren's show last week.
Interestingly, I had just finished reading a book by Boteach.
It was called Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children.
There was some interesting 'advice' in the book-mostly stuff that I felt was no-brainer advice, like listening to your children, having dinner as a family, the idea that one must always "honour" one's parents, even if we don't feel love for them all the time.
It was very Jewish, very sensible stuff.
However, I was telling Kathy that I thought that the book inadvertantly revealed much more about Rabbi Boteach than he probably realized, or had intended.
It was meant to be another wow-I'm-so-smart kind of book, because the Rabbi considers himself a counselor, martial therapist, psychologist, teacher, etc.. all in one.
What I read in the book was a series of pretty candid confessions about his very troubled childhood-that clearly both haunts him and animates a lot of his career choices.
Exhibit one-his parents apparently fought all the time, and he admits that police were called to his house.
His father was a yelling, screaming tyrant apparently who was emotionally distant from the children.
The mother couldn't take it any more and packed up the kids from LA (the dad was a poor, Iranian Jewish immigrant to the US) and moved them to Miami.
So, he grew up without his father-no male role model and a single mom who worked day and night to keep the kids fed and in Jewish schools.
His brother is gay-hard to reconcile with Orthodox Judaism.
Throughout the book there were also admission of him yelling at his children, apologizing for yelling only to do it again, virtually ignoring one of his sons and being almost obsessively concerned about the (commercial) success of his books.
He seems to not understand the disconnect between his clear pursuit of celebrity and how that puts him at odds with traditional Jewish values like personal modesty. He is vain about his intellect, and admits that his children have castigated him for the way he often speaks to his wife (put downs, disappointment).
Clearly, while battling his family demons, he puts on a very cool show in public, making a living with a penchant for publicity. You do have to wonder about his association with Michael Jackson-how one could possibly reconcile befriending such a drug-addicted, troubled (accused pedophile). Would he have let Michael Jackson come over for Shabbos and stay in a room with his sons?
If I were Michael Coren, I wouldn't be terribly concerned about being accused of antisemitism by Rabbi Boteach. It's a ridiculous accusation.
Michael Coren has issues with Judaism-how could you not, being a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism.
But those I believe, are of a personal and completely benign nature, and not anti-Jewish in any way.
Furthermore, one must always evaluate where criticism originates and for what purpose.
Self-publicity and puffery appear to be two Boteach specialties so I wouldn't take this Boteach outburst too seriously. 
