Christopher Hitchens debated Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at the 92nd Street Y last week. Every report I've seen says Shmuley was, too say the very least…
…extremely over matched. Hitchens wiped the floor with Shmuley not once but dozens of times.
Here are three choice quotes from bloggers in attendance, culled from a many more posted by Jewcy:
Rex Sorgatz: "Rabbi Shmuley Boteach proved, once and for all, that god is not dead. He's just exceptionally boring."
Lilit Marcus: "Thanks, Shmuley Boteach, for caring more about selling copies of your latest book than about making people who believe in God not come off like complete morons."
Daniel Radosh: After the way Hitchens treated Boteach, it was a little hypocritical of him to chastise God for condoning bloodbaths. To see the rabbi reduced literally to incoherent sputtering was almost sad, but then again, he had no one to blame by himself. Declaring that Steven Jay Gould, author of the classic essay 'Evolution as Theory and Fact,' did not believe in evolution, was probably not the wisest strategic gambit. I think the exchange that best captured the evening came when Boteach accused Hitchens of 'character assassination,' and Hitchens retorted, 'you should be more concerned that your character is committing suicide right here in front of everyone.'"
The debate made the Huffington Post where, as might be expected, Shmuley fares even worse. Rachel Sklar notes:
…Afterward, the line to get Hitchens to sign books was long and slow moving[…]; a plaintive 92nd St. Y employee would occasionally call out to see if anyone was there for the Rabbi (and moderator Neil Gillman of the Jewish Theological Seminary, who was clearly getting exasperated with Boteach himself). At one point the same employee tried to speed things up. "To speed this process up, we ask you to turn to the page of the book that says "God Is Not Great," she said. "I never thought I'd be saying that as a director of Jewish faith."
Not being there, all I can say is that Hitchens has done the Jewish world one key service for which we are forever in his debt, no matter what he thinks about God – Hitchens showed us all what an incompetent puffed up fraud Shmuley Boteach truly is.
Jewcy's coverage is posted here.