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March 4, 2005/Adar I 23 5765, Volume 57, No. 27
Rabbi turned radio host brings 'too Jewish' show to Phoenix
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Rabbi Sam Cohon never planned on being a radio personality.
As the spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El in Tucson, Cohon has more than enough responsibilities to fill his time. Since 2002, however, he has one more line on his resume: the host of "Too Jewish," an hour-long weekly radio program that began airing in Phoenix in late January.
"Figuring out a name for the show was the hard part," Cohon recalls. "I mean, what do you call a Jewish radio show? I said, 'We should call it Deli Home Companion,' and the lawyer said, 'You know, that's really not a good idea.' 'So how about All Jews Considered?' I said."
Other, more serious, names like "Shmais Israel" were batted around and rejected as being "too Jewish."
"I said, 'Too Jewish? Too Jewish? That's a pretty good name,'" Cohon says. "The whole issue is, can you be too Jewish? The answer in today's America is, probably not."
Besides interviews with local, national and world Jewish celebrities, "Too Jewish" includes Jewish news and commentary from local mavens like Tom Price, a Tucson-area man who spent years with the U.S. Department of State and discusses international foreign policy on the show.
Celebrities have included a wide range of Jewish personalities, from Lisa Schiffman, author of "Generation J," and rapper 50 Shekel to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yael Dayan, a novelist and daughter of the late Israeli politician Moshe Dayan. Cohon says his favorite interviews have been writer Kinky Friedman, actor Ed Asner and poet Marge Piercy. Upcoming guests include Peter Yarrow of the musical group Peter, Paul and Mary and singer Neil Sedaka.
Even controversial topics have been broached on "Too Jewish," including a show about gay marriage that featured as a guest Rabbi Steve Greenberg, an Orthodox gay rabbi. Other hot-topic shows include a discussion of Jewish-Catholic relations and an interview with a Gaza settler.
Cohon initially envisioned "Too Jewish" as an outreach tool for the Tucson area.
"It's really clear in Tucson and Phoenix as well, and in Las Vegas - anywhere in the West - many Jews who have a reasonable Jewish identity don't connect to Jewish institutions and don't join synagogues," Cohon explains. "Our area has a lot of people who have moved here from somewhere else, and if they belonged to a synagogue back home they haven't quite found their Jewish community here.
"We need to find different ways of reaching Jews. So this has been a way of bringing people in the door."
Indeed, Cohon has seen his congregation swell from 350 to more than 800 member families during his tenure at Emanu-El.
He says, "It's been a tremendous outreach tool for our synagogue. But we've seen people that have connected to the radio show joining all the other congregations in town, attending federation events, putting their kids in Hebrew High and joining the JCC."
While it's too soon to determine the effect "Too Jewish" will have in Phoenix, Cohon says he recently attended a conference in California during which several Phoenix residents approached him to compliment the show.
"It's so hard to tell what the impact will be yet, but so far the response has been really nice," he says. Future plans for syndication include Denver and Las Vegas, as well as other cities around the country.
"We don't just want to have a successful radio show," Cohon says. "We think it'll be a successful radio show, but our goal is really different. Our goal really is to reach people, to communicate how interesting and fun and exciting and challenging Judaism is.
"What we try to articulate and explore and have fun with - and explore seriously also -- is how do you forge Jewish identity today? It's composed of a lot of different aspects. It's music, it's comedy, it's political activism, it can be social causes, it's Israel, it's Jews in other countries. There are a lot of different pieces to it. And everybody expresses their Judaism pretty individualistically. For me, that's what makes it fun."
"Too Jewish" airs 7 a.m. Sundays on 1310 KXAM.
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