The Tribe (Member) Has finally Spoken
From jewishexponent.com
By : Michael Elkin
1/17/2002
Ethan Zohn made it out of Africa as the top “Survivor,” the first Jewish winner on the CBS show.
Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS
Think surviving “Survivor” was a challenge, Ethan Zohn? Just try getting immunity from people pinching your cheeks now.
That may be the next challenge reward facing Zohn, the young, irresistible Jewish “Survivor” who brought home the bacon — even when turning it down for breakfast.
He is a 27-year-old Bar Mitzvah-cute boychick collecting envelopes of praise — and at least one stuffed with a million dollars — for being the last “Survivor” standing on last Thursday night’s CBS finale.
The Jewish soccer player from the suburbs of Massachusetts helped give the boot to many a stereotype in the process. Nice guys finish last? This “Survivor” finished at the top of the ratings — as well as No. 1 in the hearts of many a fan who liked Zohn’s zeal for niceness.
Out of Africa and back in the states, the now clean-shaven New York resident newly rich after cleaning up as the third winner of the reality TV game is being touted as the game’s Cute One, the Beatle of the Brackwater, the Paul McCartney of the Dark Continent.
In a way, how appropriate it is that the survival of the fittest fell to a biology grad from Vassar College suddenly thrust under a microscope before millions of viewers each week — including Jan. 17, when he appears in a CBS look at “Survivors” back home.
More important to the guy who learned to outwit, outplay and outlast everyone out of Africa was his outstanding ability to be - haimisch.
Call him the anti-Richard Hatch. “I wanted to show that nice guys can finish first,” says Zohn.
And he also wanted to finish off another stereotype. White guys can’t jump? How about Jewish men can’t jump, bend, run, skip or break a sweat?
“There are so many stereotypes of Jews,” he laments, but he is delighted to have helped break the notion that the sporting life is not one for Jews.
In fact, this member of the tribe was suspect among some “Survivor” colleagues. The tribe has spoken, but not everything they had to say was necessarily enlightened.
“I was the first Jew Tom [Buchanan] had ever met,” says Zohn of the semifinalist goat-herder who was seen goading Ethan at one point about his religion.
“Clarence [Black] said he hadn’t met any Jews either, and I think Frank [Garrison] knew one. It was all so strange for me. I come from this community where there are lots of Jews, and suddenly, I’m in company where people are looking for my horns.”
Far from blowing it, Zohn says he was able to sound a wake-up call, trumpeting his pride in being Jewish. “It was a blessing, giving me an opportunity to show them all what a real Jew is like.”
And what this Jew likes is being able to now “serve as a role model, hopefully for the Jewish community.”
After all, while some cast members opted for some skulduggery, this guy dug fairness. The original Boran tribe member bore no resemblance to a snake in the grass — or, in this case, savannah. “I went out to win fair, and I played hard and with integrity.”
Indeed, he played the game religiously. “These are all virtues I learned in synagogue.”
Another lesson he learned there and at home was not to eat pork, which is why he scrambled the idea of eating bacon with his eggs when offered a deluxe breakfast during the games. “I’m not kosher but growing up Jewish, you know never to eat pork. That’s one thing I’ll stay true to.”
Truth be told, he did take part in the challenge of drinking fresh cow’s blood. “That I was more hesitant about because I’m a vegetarian,” says Zohn. “But I knew I had to do it to stay in the game, so I did it.”
What he hopes to do now is give back some of what he’s learned — and loved. The soccer pro who has served as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s teams at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., wants to stick his neck out a bit more, helping inner-city youth, teaching them about the game and setting up a soccer scholarship.
Soccer as succor? It’s important, says Zohn of the game, a field of dreams which has taken him far afield of his New York home. Close to his heart is the time he spent as a member of the U.S. Maccabi soccer teams in 1997 and 2001. “What an experience Israel is!” he says.
He has that memory down to a T. “If you looked closely at the last [tribal] meeting, you’ll see me wearing a USA Maccabi Team T-shirt,” he says. “I took two shirts with me, and it was important that that T be one of them.”
Score one for Israel. “To play and connect with Jewish athletes there from all over the world — I mean, I met Indian Jews. Who would think that there are Jews in India?”
Well, there certainly was one in Kenya — taking part in challenges as diverse as puzzle-solving and archery.
Now, it’s time to take a bow as the nation’s new Jewish hunk.
“Oh, no, no,” says Zohn, disavowing such a title.
For a Conservative Jew taking part in this most unorthodox of TV rituals, he has traded in the give-and-take of the games for the giving back that comes with his charitable nature. “After receiving this gift, I have a platform I can use to do good, to put smiles on others’ faces.”
And for any matchmakers out there, wipe that smile off your face: Zohn already has a flame — long before he learned how to make fire by rubbing sticks together in Africa. Zohn is happily committed to a young woman who attended his victory party after “Survivor.”
And how is life after “Survivor”?
If there is a price to pay for his newfound fame, Zohn will survive it. And the high praise he’s getting doesn’t affect his oh-so-down-to-earth good nature.
After all, this soccer star’s goals have been met: “What I started out to do was prove that a good guy could be the ultimate survivor.”
The winner has spoken