The Daily Show Starring Jon Leibowitz?

A young Jon Leibowitz

Should Jon Stewart change his name back to Jon Leibowitz? Being a non-practicing Jew with an open disdain for the more invasive aspects of formal religion, I would be an unlikely candidate to tackle this issue and that of modern Jewish self-identity. But I dig on media and social commentary so away we go. The Jew-WASPifies-his-name-for-assimilation-purposes-in-order-to-make-it-in-Hollywood phenomenon has been operating since the advent of modern media. In the 20’s and 30’s, Jewish studio moguls were worried that the abstract Jewish names of its stars would seem too ethnic and scare off the dime-cinema masses. Flash forward a few decades and Mel Kaminsky becomes Mel Brooks, Issur Demsky becomes Kirk Douglas, and Robert Zimmerman becomes Bob Dylan.

The practice became so ingrained that no one really noticed or questioned it. Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz) launched his career in the mid-80’s, started gaining some traction in the mid-90’s, and hit the mainstream just after the turn of the millenium. I’ll spare you my oft-repeated hypothesis that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, by embracing their nebbishness, did for Jewish pop culture penetration what Jackie Robinson did for black athletes, but one has to wonder if it’s necessary any longer.

Ron Rosenbaum doesn’t seem to think so and writes an open letter to Stewart requesting that he embrace his roots. Rosenbaum makes reasonable comment that this re-naming is outdated and antiquated, but let’s face it, Jon Stewart is known as Jon Stewart and his personal brand value and maketability lies in the name, Jon Stewart. And anyways, why single out this guy? Last time I checked, Gene Simmons was still kicking and I can assure he ain’t changing his name back to Chaim Witz any time soon. Well, Rosenbaum has a good foundation for why Stewart is the most appropriate candidate to lead the charge back:

I think it has something to do with what I like most about your show, which is that you, like the best satirists, focus on making fun of those who put up a false front. Not that Stewart is false in any malign sense of the word. (It was your middle name—well, Stuart was!) But that it’s a kind of mask, and you spend most of your time making fun of the pretentious masks that politicians, celebrities, and big shots adopt.

Hmm, he’s got a point, Jon.