Mark Zuckerberg and Benjamin Netanyahu head the Jerusalem Post’s second annual list of the world’s 50 Top Jews.
Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, adds his No. 1 finish in the Post survey to his Person of the Year award from Time magazine. He is followed by Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.
American names include Reps. Eric Cantor (No. 13), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (14) and Gabrielle Giffords (26). One slot behind Giffords is Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show.” Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman (24), writers Nora Ephron (33) and Jeffrey Goldberg (35), actress Natalie Portman (38) and comedian Sarah Silverman (49) also appear.
Five rabbis show up in the lower part of the list (39 to 43), with Rabbi Richard Jacobs, president-elect of the Union for Reform Judaism, as the only non-Israeli.
The list includes names not widely known in the United States: Orna Barbivai (44), the first female general in the Israeli army; Job Cohen, head of the Dutch Labor Party (46); and Ivan Glasenberg (47) and Bertie Lubner (48), two wealthy South African businessmen. The list also leans heavily toward Israeli celebrities, including Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, who is in the 50th spot. — jta