MADONNA - MADONNA HITS JEWISH POWER LIST

Superstar MADONNA has been named in America's 2004 Jewish power list in THE FORWARD weekly newspaper - despite her protestations.

The MATERIAL GIRL has been added to the 'Forward 50' - the publication's annual survey to the most powerful and influential Jewish Americans, due to her following of mystical Jewish offshoot The Kabbalah.

But Madonna's spokeswoman LIZ ROSENBERG told The Forward repeatedly that "Madonna is not Jewish", explaining "it wouldn't be appropriate to include her on such a list".

The paper's editor JJ GOLDBERG says, "There are a lot of differences of opinion about the nature of the Jewish community - who's Jewish and who isn't.

"She's a practitioner of the Kabbalah, so she's practicing Judaism, for Christ's sake! Well, not really for Christ's sake. But she's probably the world's best-known practitioner of Judaism right now."

Other stars on the list include Israeli-born actress NATALIE PORTMAN, comedian JON STEWART and baseball player SHAWN GREEN.

Madonna has been studying the Kabbalah since 1997 and introduced it to her film maker husband GUY RITCHIE.