Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is host of the daily national radio program, "The Rabbi Shmuley Show" on Oprah & Friends, XM Satellite Radio, and host of the award-winning national TV show, Shalom in the Home on TLC. He is also the international best-selling author of 19 books, including his most recent work, "The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him," released by St. Martin's Press in January of 2008. His recent works, "Parenting With Fire" and "Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children" were both launched on Oprah's TV show.
In 2007, Rabbi Shmuley was labeled "a cultural phenomenon" and "the most famous rabbi in America" by Newsweek magazine, and was named one of the ten most influential rabbis in America. Also in 2007, Rabbi Shmuley was honored by The National Fatherhood Initiative, receiving their most prestigious award for his efforts on Shalom in the Home to promote the importance of a caring father in the contemporary family.
Rabbi Shmuley was also named by Talkers Magazine as one of the hundred most important radio hosts in America.
In 1999, just days before the millennium, Rabbi Shmuley won the highly prestigious "Preacher of the Year" Award from the London Times, setting a record for the most points ever garnered in the competition's history. Rabbi Shmuley also publishes a weekly syndicated column for which, in 2005, he was awarded the American Jewish Press Association's highest award for excellence in commentary.
Rabbi Shmuley is one of five finalists for Brandeis University's Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation for his proposal 'Bringing Judaism Into The Mainstream.' The proposal is an extension of This World: The Jewish Values Network, the organization he founded and chairs, which aims to bring Jewish values to mainstream American culture via the media, live debates, and the arts.
Rabbi Shmuley first came to world attention through his founding of the Oxford University L'Chaim Society, an organization of Oxford students that within three years of its founding in 1988 had become the second largest student organization in Oxford's history. In Oxford, where Rabbi Shmuley served as Rabbi to the students for eleven years, he played host to, and debated, some of the world's leading thinkers, statesmen, and entertainers including Mikhail Gorbachev, Professor Stephen Hawking, Shimon Peres, Deepak Chopra, Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Wiesel, Yitzchak Shamir, Prof. Richard Dawkins, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Simon Wiesenthal, and Prof. Colin Blakemore, to name but a few.
Hailed by Dennis Prager as 'possessing one of the most fertile minds of our generation,' Rabbi Shmuley has written many best-selling books including "Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge," "Kosher Sex," "Kosher Adultery," "Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments," "Face Your Fear," the critically-acclaimed "Judaism for Everyone," "The Private Adam," his critique of American celebrity culture, and his review of Oxford history and life, "Moses of Oxford, Vols. I & II." His book Why Can't I Fall in Love" was a finalist for the 2002 Books for a Better Life Award, and in April 2005 Rabbi Shmuley published "Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex."
Many of Rabbi Shmuley's books have been serialized in major international publications and have been translated into seventeen languages, including Japanese, Thai, Czech, Chinese, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, and French.
Rabbi Shmuley is a highly sought-after television and radio guest, having appeared on shows ranging from The Today Show to The View to The O'Reilley Factor to Good Morning America, and nearly everything in between. He was also the subject of a full-length BBC documentary, Moses of Oxford. He has been profiled in many of the world's leading publications, including Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The London Times, The L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post.
Engaged in such a wide range of endeavors, it is no wonder that Salon.com wrote "Boteach has his scholarly finger on the pulse of the nation."
Rabbi Shmuley is married to his Australian wife, Debbie, and they have eight children.