No sleep, but plenty of love, for Oz and Boteach in Israel

Dr. Mehmet Oz and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach should be exhausted.

The duo — one of America’s best-known doctors and TV personalities and one of America’s best-known rabbis and celebrity spiritual advisers — have kept up a feverish pace since arriving in Israel with their families on Monday on the private jet of casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. While Boteach, the author of dozens of books including “Kosher Sex” and the newly released “Kosher Jesus,” is a regular visitor to the Holy Land, this is the first trip to Israel for Oz and his family and one that has been surrounded by much fanfare and media glare.

Boteach is serving as tour guide and host to Oz, his wife Lisa, his four children and his son-in-law. The trip is being sponsored by Adelson and This World: The Jewish Values Network.

“We have not slept on this trip at all,” Boteach tells me from the backseat of a chauffeured car, where he and Oz are squeezing in an interview between engagements. They have just come from a visit to the Sheldon and Miriam Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse, Treatment and Research and are now on their way to a meeting in the Tel Aviv suburb of Or Yehuda. On Tuesday they were in Hebron, where they prayed at the Cave at the Patriarchs, and also visited the grave of Maimonides in Tiberias and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem. But the pace doesn’t seem to be getting them down.

“I’m always filled with energy when I’m in Israel,” Boteach says.

So much energy, in fact, that Oz quips, “I take Valium every morning, with a little tart cherry juice, to deal … Shmuley is very positive, often frenetic, but I actually appreciate that.”

Oz, who has a quick sense of humor, shares a friendship with Boteach that goes back many years and can handle a bit of ribbing. The duo, who are often referred to as “America’s doctor” and “America’s rabbi,” met while working for America’s talk show host, Oprah Winfrey. Years later, at a dinner honoring Oz, Elie Wiesel and the Adelsons, Boteach convinced Oz, a Muslim whose parents live in Turkey, that the time had come to visit Israel.

“I’m going to Turkey after this to visit my parents — I go every year,” Oz says. “And it’s always been a source of chagrin that I wasn’t able to go the extra 45 minutes to visit Israel. So we’re staying here for a week and then going to Turkey for a week, and I think it’s the perfect vacation.”

Boteach says it was a “no-brainer” to bring Oz and his family to the Holy Land.

“Those of us who love Israel love showing Israel off,” he says. “Mehmet is a spiritual man beyond being a world-class physician… And the biggest argument for Israel is Israel itself.”

Boteach insists that, far from being a propaganda visit, his goal in showing Israel off to the Ozes has been total honesty.

“We Jews have no perfect people in our bible. There’s no Jesus figure, there’s no divine figure. We define righteousness as struggle, a struggle to do the right thing amid challenges to do otherwise. So Israel’s not a perfect country,” he says. “But I just want people to believe in its commitment to justice and righteousness and that it tries to do the right thing … That I think is the message that has to go forth from Israel.”

Less than halfway through his visit here, Oz says he has been blown away by the innovation and warmth he has witnessed in the country, and that he hopes he can harness his position as a celebrity and public figure to teach other cultures and countries to learn from Israel’s example.

“Turkey has really benefited from its friendship with Israel over the years,” he says. “And I think the other Arab countries that have partnered have also done well. So let’s see what else we can learn… Israel offers a model worth replicating and also the chance to be a partner, a crutch for those who need it. It’s an opportunity you cannot throw away.”

Boteach and Oz are unlikely friends. The Los Angeles-born Boteach is shorter and bearded; an Orthodox Jew known equally for his outspoken nature and his role as confidant and sex therapist to celebrities including Michael Jackson. Oz, who grew up in an immigrant home in Cleveland, Ohio, is tall and dashing; a clean-shaven cardiovascular surgeon who made a name for himself promoting healthy living and providing medical expertise on some of America’s biggest talk shows. His own program, “The Dr. Oz Show,” has won three Emmy awards.

Yet here they are, the doctor and the rabbi, the Muslim and the Jew, squished in the backseat of a car in central Israel’s rush hour traffic. Their friendship, Oz says, proves a point that the Middle East needs to learn.

“When you’re curious about each other, genuinely curious, it leads to friendships. It’s hard to hate someone that you know,” he says. And then, once again, he cracks a joke. “So you look at Shmuley – he’s different than me. I don’t have his boyish good looks … but I love him.”

Boteach says he hopes that Oz will take away from this trip an even deeper understanding of the nature of the Jewish people.

“I wanted him to see that the Israeli people have a commitment to courting decency. That they’re extremely decent people. That they want to do the right thing. That Israel is the land of love,” he says.

And then, quick on his feet, he cracks a joke of his own.

“Really, though, I just wanted him to say that he loves me,” he quips. “And now he has.”