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Yiddishe Kop
A fast-talking sports maven holds his own
on ESPN—and learns the language
of his grandparents on the side.
BILL CARROLL
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161Rackham Symphony Choir
4
Suzanne Acton, Conductor
presents: Yizkor
Requiem
by Thomas Beveridge
Cantor Stephen Dubov, Tenor
Alaina Brown, Soprano
Kathleen Segar, Mezzo Soprano
Special Appearance by Composer Thomas Beveridge
Sunday, March 30, 3:00 pm
Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church
(East Jefferson at St. Antoine)
Tickets $15 in advance, $18 at the door
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3/14
2003
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Special to the Jewish News
0
Max
Kellerman comes across as
a slick, quick-tongued,
gruff-sounding moderator
of a fast-paced, no-holds-barred
daily sports talk show and commen-
tator on the weekly boxing matches.
He holds his own in a mainly non-
Jewish world of athletes and sports-
writers.
Behind the scenes, at age 29, he's a
"nice Jewish boy" from Manhattan
and an ardent student of Yiddish
language and Jewish history who was
very close to his bubbie and zaydie.
He's doing his best to perpetuate
the mother language, and wants to
make sure Yiddish secular Jewish
culture continues to thrive in this
country.
But he's vociferously verbal when
it comes to sports, too.
Kellerman is one of the rising stars
of TV sports programming who
seems to fit in nicely among the
dynamic, young Jewish executives
who are running cable TV's popular
ESPN sports networks.
His brash, outspoken style is
refreshing, and necessary to keep the
interest of remote-control-wielding
TV fanatics in the often topsy-turvy
world of sports.
Kellerman has captured the atten-
don of boxing fans for his work as a
studio analyst on Friday Night Fights
(9:30 p.m. Fridays on ESPN2), ema-
nating from the network's headquar-
ters in Bristol, Conn. He's also the
host of one of the newest shows on
ESPN, Around the Horn, a 30-
minute program (5 p.m. Mondays-
Fridays) that was launched in
November.
The show features passionate opin-
ions, witty comments and some
good-natured teasing by sportswrit-
ers — and the host — on the day's
hot-button sports issues.
n television,
Blossoming Referee
Kellerman seems to call on knowl-
edge gained from many years of
watching boxing referees for his role
as moderator of Around the Horn.
He often has to break up verbal
exchanges among a panel of four
noted sports columnists from news-
papers around the country, who are
beamed in by satellite from their
newsrooms to ESPN's Washington,
D.C., studio.
Discussing pre-arranged topics, he
gives them points on the strength of
their remarks, and the points award-
ed or deducted have a direct correla-
tion' to how much time they get for
closing "arguments."
He sometimes ends the show with
the snappy line: "We're now taking a
23 I/2-hour break."
"I guess you could call Around the
Horn the Sesame Street or MTV of
the modern generation as far as TV
show popularity goes," quipped
Kellerman, who has received glowing
comments from critics and viewers
for his work and the show's content.
Especially popular among male
viewers ages 18-34, Around the Horn
has increased ESPN's ratings 43 per-
cent over last year in the 5 p.m. time
slot.
Kellerman, who is single and has a
steady girlfriend, maintains apart-
ments in both Manhattan and the
Washington, D.C., area to keep up
his hectic TV pace.
But he loves the tumult and
excitement, and seemed destined to
become a boxing analyst and glib
talk-show host based on his back-
ground and early career.
Devoted To Yiddish
Kellerman and his brothers, Sam,
Harry and Jack, were raised in the
New York area in a secular Jewish
atmosphere by their parents, Linda
and Henry Kellerman — she's an
artist, he's a practicing psychiatrist.
But young Max started learning
Yiddish and Yiddishkeit from his
father's parents, who came to
America from Ukraine.
"As secular Jews, we had our bar
mitzvahs in a hall, not a synagogue,"