The Rabbi of Rock

Michelle Tedford

Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Hot music, cool Judaism the right format for WXEG’s Boomer

If you’re looking for cool, the morning host of Dayton’s WXEG can point you in the right direction.

One of the hottest alternative rock bands? Killswitch Engage.

Most awesome annual event? Clear Channel’s X-Fest, which draws 20,000 screaming rockers to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

Best DJ moniker? “The Rabbi of Rock.”

“I told my Dad, and he said, ‘That’s the best. You’ve got to use it,’” said Ben Schuman, also known as “Boomer” for his powerful voice to those who dial in to 103.9 FM from 6-10 a.m. weekdays.

Schuman, who attends Temple Beth Or, was dubbed “The Rabbi” by the lead singer of Seether, a band whose first single was introduced to America on Schuman’s radio show.

Schuman even headed to cyberspace and received a “rabbi’s” ordination certificate from Universal Ministries. It’s framed, hanging in the green hallway of honor in his home beside his more traditional diplomas.

If you think rock music and faith don’t mix, you don’t know Schuman.

He sits in his Oregon District office, “Rabbi of Rock” T-shirt on his tattooed back. The head of Borat is sticking out of his filing cabinet. Johnny Cash’s photo is giving visitors the finger. Moses, a mint-condition action figure, is tacked to the wall. A snapshot of his infant son, Aviram, in a “Happy Chanukah” bib beams out from his Web blog.

Before Schuman moved to Dayton five years ago, his sole Ohio experience was a semester at Dennison University.

“The only thing we agreed on was that I shouldn’t be there,” he said.

This time around, things clicked. After initially rejecting the WXEG job offer, he jumped at a second opportunity to throw all his belongings in a van and head west.

Then he found Temple Beth Or.

“It was one of the first places I felt at home,” said Schuman, 29, originally from Northampton, Mass.

“Collectively, they just opened their arms and said sit with us and pray with us and be with us.”

Schuman connected with Rabbi David Burstein, the temple’s education director, who attended the same prep school as Schuman a decade earlier.

So when Burstein asked him this year to teach at Temple Beth Or’s religious school, Schuman agreed.

“The reality is that Jewish kids have tattoos, Jewish kids have piercings, Jewish kids listen to the music he listens to,” said Burstein, who requested Schuman help the students create positive Jewish memories in a class on Jews and American culture. “If you can hit them with a guy like Ben when they’re in the ninth grade, we’ve got them.”

To teach his students about “cool Jews in America,” Schuman brought in pop icon images and asked students to identify them.

“Nothing will make you feel older faster than being in a room full of kids and them not knowing who the Beastie Boys are,” he said of the New York band that exploded in the 1980s by rapping, “You’ve got to fight for your right to party.”

Schuman also discusses with his students what it’s like to be a Jew in a predominantly Christian community.

He can speak from many sides of the issue, from a kid growing up in a community that equally revered Chanukah and Christmas to his current role in a mixed marriage as father to Aviram and husband to Lauren.

Do his tattoos garner him added respect in the classroom?

“They’re 14-year-olds,” he said, shrugging. “It’s Sunday morning and it’s Hebrew school.”

His goal is to get them to realize, “It’s cool to be Jewish.”

It’s also cool to be a rock DJ.

“I haven’t paid for a concert ticket since 1998. I love music,” he said.

He also loves that, as assistant program director of “The X,” he and his boss get to decide what goes on the air. They program each day focusing on 18- to 34-year-old males and reach 115,000 total listeners.

“Every song we play, there’s someone out there who (says) it’s their favorite song, and there’s someone out there who hates the song,” he said. “We program that middle chunk. Sometimes you have to put your personal feelings aside and serve your listeners.”

Schuman does see his job as a service, soliciting feedback from listeners and doing the legwork to get them music they’ll want to hear.

He does, though, have personal favorites. Currently, it’s Iron & Wine, Ray LaMontagne, and the perennial Pixies.

His tattoos help tell the story of the roles Schuman has assumed. There’s Avi’s footprint on his right forearm. Near his wrist is the Hebrew expression, gam zeh ya’avor, this too shall pass.

His left arm is a sea of color, burning eyeballs, fish, dice. The Star of David and a pink breast cancer survivor ribbon, for his mother, share space over his heart. His next tattoo will cross his back: “The road to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.”

“I love that everything I have on my body has significance and, collectively, it tells the story of where I’ve been, what I’ve done and gone through.”

© 2007 The Dayton Jewish Observer