Jewish Hour Switches Stations

PressMart.com

Rabbi Herschel Finman already shares Jewish-based teachings through an e-mail listserv of more than 14,000 and countless viewers on Internet video sites. On July 4, he increased the listening base for his radio show, “The Jewish Hour,” by switching from WPON-1460 AM to WLQV-1500 AM, Sundays at 11.

“Why?” Finman asked in his booming DJ voice. “Because LQV is a 50,000-watt station and the signal can be heard throughout Southeast Michigan.”

Finman hosts an hour-long radio program including news from Israel, words of inspiration on the weekly Torah portion, Chasidic stories and Jewish music that ranges from Theodore Bikel, Mickey Katz and Avraham Fried to Lipa Shmelzer, Safam and Carlebach.

He also conducts guest interviews, like the July 17 talk with Houda Nonoo, Jewish ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States.

He refers to himself as both “a teacher and student of Judaism for nearly 35 years, with a major focus of Chasidus (a sect of Orthodox Judaism) and Kaballah.” He also has spent more than 25 years working in medical-legal-business ethics research.

A Chabad rabbi, Finman is a prison chaplain and teaches Torah classes in homes, offices, over the phone and through Web conferences.

His weekly e-mailed e-Parsha is a short, in-depth, easy-to-read analysis of the Torah portion or an upcoming holiday along with a Chasidic story. His YouParsha appears weekly on YouTube.

“All are different,” he said. “I never repeat myself. That way, a person can get three perspectives of the subject.”

After 15 years on-air, he says, “I’m still the only one with a Jewish radio show in Michigan.”