The Democrats and Republicans may have widely divergent candidates and policies but they do agree on one thing — it is best to use a rabbi to bless their conventions.

While the Republicans went for modern Orthodox minister Meir Soloveichik, the Democrats chose Rabbi David Wolpe of the Conservative Sinai Temple in Los Angeles to perform the invocation.

Fifty-three-year-old Wolpe may never have performed on the global stage before but he is accustomed to the limelight. This year, Newsweek magazine named him the most influential rabbi in America and the Jerusalem Post went further, including him in their list of the 50 most influential Jews on the planet.

Rabbi Wolpe has published seven books on various aspects of Jewish thought, taken part in public debates with atheist thinkers such as Christopher Hitchens and has appeared on most of the major American networks to talk about issues concerning Judaism.

Without a doubt, he is one of America’s rabbinical big hitters.