Columnist Asks Jon Stewart to Change His Name Back

Slate's "Spectator" columnist Ron Rosenbaum has a modest proposal for Jon Stewart: The host of Comedy Central's Daily Show should change his name back to Jon Leibowitz.

Stewart, who was just named "the most trusted newscaster" by an internet poll on Time's Web site—the comedian beat out NBC's Brian Williams, ABC's Charlie Gibson, and CBS's Katie Couric by a wide, wide margin—officially changed his name in 2001 [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/jonstewart1.html], but has been using the surname Stewart (a modification of his middle name, Stuart) his entire career. "I didn't really change my name," Stewart told The New Yorker's Tad Friend in 2002. "I just shortened it." In 2008 on the eve of hosting the Oscars, he offered another explanation to London's Telegraph, "Kids find things that rhyme with Leibowitz."

Slate's Rosenbaum makes the case that by anglicizing his name, Stewart is perpetuating a legacy of whitewash among Jewish performers. (Think of a young Bernard Schwartz, who decided to change his name to Tony Curtis to become a star.) According to Rosenbaum, Stewart changing his name back to Liebowitz "would represent the end of a shabby, antiquated era, pronouncing that aspect of anti-Semitism now (hopefully) dead and gone."

Rosenbaum also thinks Stewart—erm, Leibowitz—can get a lot of comic mileage out this possible name change. One person who's already had some fun with Stewart's old name is the second most trusted newsman on TV, Brian Williams: The NBC anchor—who this week had a little on-air play fight with Stewart—headlined a 2007 birthday post for the comedian on NBC's Daily Nightly blog, Where Have You Gone, Jon Stuart Leibowitz?

Where, indeed?