Jewish sportscasters in the spotlight

Disc JewkeysI've been a fan of the Chicago Jewish News since it started, but this week's cover story on Chicago's Jewish sports talk show hosts may carry its worst headline ever.

Disc Jewkeys? Give me a break.

That unforgivable clunker aside, Pauline Dubkin Yearwood's profile of six prominent local sportscasters offers some unique insights into why talking about sports on the radio seems to attract so many nice Jewish boys (you should pardon the expression).

Here's what some of them told Yearwood about how their ethnic heritage figures into their work:

Jordan Bernfield of WGN AM 720: “I think often the Jewish values of striving to be the best, striving to be successful are values that coincide with trying to work in a business as competitive as this. It’s because in many Jewish families success is valued, and there are so many Jews who strive to be at the top of a competitive field.”

Dan Bernstein of WSCR AM 670: “Like it does in many walks of life, [my Jewish upbringing] brings with it a certain analytical way of seeing the world, finding the gray areas, asking questions upon questions, always with the lively intellectual dissatisfaction and mordant humor. No question it helps in finding what is funny amid what may not appear to be.”

David Kaplan of WGN AM 720 and Comcast SportsNet Chicago: “I try not to wear my religion on my sleeve, although I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m Jewish. All my listeners know. I always wish my listeners happy new year [at the Jewish New Year] and happy Passover, and I do the same thing for those who aren’t Jewish. I try to treat everybody the right way."

David Schuster of WSCR AM 670: Being Jewish doesn’t make much difference in his career but creates “a comfortable feeling” with many team owners and executives who also are Jewish, he said. "I feel a special kinship to them, but I won’t play that up [on the air] at all.”

Les Grobstein of WSCR AM 670: “We all got big mouths.”

Read the full story here: www.chicagojewishnews.com