Who Knows One? Top Moments of 2022
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s time to do our yearly reflection on our favorite show moments — the things that made us laugh, touched our hearts in some way, and in general just reminded us of why we do this in the first place — for the sense of community. Here now, our favorite moments from Who Knows One? 2022 edition (Previous lists here: 2021 | 2020):
Honorable mention — The Wall of Micahs
I don’t know what’s more amazing, that someone took the time to do this in the first place, or that he’d apparently had it at the ready for quite some time, just waiting for his chance to join the game and show it off.
Okay, on with the show.
10. A Loss, But Really A Win
I have to confess, sometimes I really regret that I created rules to this game. I know, I know, without rules we descend into total anarchy, but I find them sometimes to be an unnecessary hindrance that perhaps overwhelms the spirit of the game. A perfect example of this was from our recent Chanukah mega episode, when a rule violation robbed us (in a manner of speaking, let’s keep it all in perspective) of what was a really cool moment.
If you’re not familiar with the format of our Chanukah spectacular, it’s a Name-That-Tune homage where contestants bid on how many clues they would need to find a Chosen One. A round begins with 14 available clues, and with a spot in the final round on the line, Naomi Hass bid an impressive ONE clue to try to find Chosen One Jeremy Seaver. The task seemed nigh impossible, especially when the one clue she got was only that he lives in Indian Creek, IL, which as we know from the show, would be a challenge because Jews are great at Jewish Geography but terrible at Actual Geography.
As it turned out, it was nowhere near as difficult as we thought, as the first person Naomi added to her team, Elana Paice Lidsky, went to summer camp with Jeremy 30+ years ago! Within a matter of minutes, Jeremy was on, and the spirit of connection and community permiated the zoom…
…Right up until Elana let slide that she didn’t have Jeremy’s number and had reached out to a friend to get it, which is a no-no and grounds for disqualification from the round. I’m not going to lie, it sucked. I loathe having to kick people off the call for cheating, but this is a tournament event and precedent has been established in the past — Elana had to go and the round had to continue.
I am disappointed with how it played out (I think, if I had to do it over, I would have allowed the result to stand even with the shenanigans and allowed both contestants to move to the final instead of eliminating one of them), but less because of the infraction and more because it obscured what was a truly incredible moment — that Naomi bid one clue and was able to get to the Chosen One in one degree of separation because of a summer camp connection from three decades prior. It may not have counted in the end, but the moment still deserves its time in the spotlight.
9. He’s NOT Available
I love doing the live, in-person show (booking for 2023 dates now!), but if there is one drawback, it’s that the zoom rounds are rarely streamed and therefore rarely saved for posterity. I might need to reconsider that approach, because a no-doubt highlight of the year is one I am unfortunately sans video for.
In a live show we did for Kol Emeth in Marietta, GA, on Dec. 3, contestants were trying to find Hal Rochkind in Galveston, TX. Eventually we got to Galveston, connecting with a woman who knew Hal. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Because the woman in question was insistant — nay, adamant — that Hal was unavailable due to a huge gala he was emceeing, or being honored at, or something. She was so convincing in her repeated statement of belief she almost made me think he wasn’t available, despite, you know, texting me moments earlier that he was ready to roll.
Despite her protestations, we did eventually bring Hal onto the show and much merry was made of the moment. I really wish I could show it to you. Dang it.
8. A Bar Mitzvah Make Good
You may have seen the article earlier this year, but a bunch of b’nai mitzvot were interrupted in Jerusalem by a bunch of religious zealots, one of whom was Seth Mann, a young man who had traveled all the way from Las Vegas, NV, for his big day.
There’s not a whole lot we can do to repair these kind of hateful, intolerant acts here at Who Knows One?, but we thought we could at least try to create a more enjoyable experience for Seth to help him celebrate by having him on as the Chosen One for our show on August 10.
What really put the moment on our Best-Of radar was when Cantor D.J. Sinai was brought into the zoom to help find him and just so happened at that moment to be standing next to Seth’s brother Eli:
Mazel tov on becoming a man, Mann!
7. Charlotte wins the Battle of the Beth Els
For the second installment of our passover, March Madness-adjacent tournament Elijah’s Cup, this year we welcomed eight Beth El synagogues from across the country to compete in a single elimination bracket tournament over two nights entitled Battle of the Beth Els.
Each round featured a Chosen One with some variation of the name Beth L., and for the title round, the teams representing Beth El La Jolla and Beth El Charlotte (that’s California and North Carolina for the geographically challenged) had to bring on five people belonging to other Beth El communities from around the country that hadn’t participated in the event. We didn’t think this would be too much of a challenge given there are roughly 437 Beth Els in North America, and sure enough within 14 minutes, Charlotte sealed the deal:
What will 2023 bring? The Showdown of the Sinais? The Balagan of the Beth Ams? The Chall-nament of the poorly-named Synagogue Mergers? Stay tuned.
6. A Brief But Enjoyable Concert
The musician-themed shows are always a delight, and though this technically happened in 2021 it was after the release of last year’s list so (checks with judges) we’ll allow it.
It’s not easy to perform on zoom no matter what your talent is (at least that’s what I tell myself), and being asked to perform on the spot could be a tall task for most, but this isn’t Peggy Lohr’s first rodeo (though she’s still a young lady). When asked to belt a little tune after being brought on as the Chosen One, she waved off the idea of musical accompaniment and rocked it a capella:
5. A Brief But Enjoyable Concert, Part II
Matt Rissien has been a welcome addition to the Who Knows One? universe since playing as a contestant in early 2021, and made a triumphant return as part of our Final Four special representing Kansas University (which would go on to win the NCAA title, most likely inspired by his performance). After defeating Kenny Green of Duke in the final, Matt treated us to a Who Knows One?-themed rendition of One Shining Moment:
He’s no Peggy Lohr, but hey, the effort shall be rewarded with a place in the top 10.
4. What’s Better Than Moms? Grandmoms!
During the second-aniversary special, a battle of co-hosts between OGs Hannah and Will Martin and NKOTB Team Schuschein, we had a tiebreak-style round where the goal was to get the oldest Chosen One on the show ever, which at the moment belonged to 87-year old Rabbi James Rudin. Eventually Abby Kerbel was able to get her grandmother Marie Kramer, a young and spry 92-year old, onto the zoom, much, much to our enjoyment:
3. An Unexpected Zidel
We love to try out new formats of the game from time to time, and one we’d been wanting to do for a while was a relay-race battle between families, where they had to find different types of people (a lawyer in Houston, a graduate of Wisconsin, etc), eventually unlocking a final Chosen One that all five members of the family would be able to help look for.
We did a test run of the show with our Patreon community without complications, but unintended consequences are never far from joining the zoom, and in this case, when the fourth checkpoint for the Barkowitz family was to bring someone on in Philadelphia, they had quite a little surprise waiting for them when that person turned up:
It’s number three on the overall list, but the moment of the reveal might be my favorite Chosen One sighting in show history.
2. Who Knows One? Plays Matchmaker!
First, a quick shoutout to all of the IRL meetups that happened in the past year for friendships that developed via the Who Knows One? community. For myself, that meant getting to meet in person my co-hosts, at least three SuperConnectors, and make a pilgrimmage to the show’s spiritual home in Walnut Creek, CA. And as those opportunities to gather together became more accessible, it was perhaps a question of when, not if, we’d see Who Knows One? bear some matrimonial fruit. Now we can’t really take credit for the romance between Aaron and Anna Gurvis, who were married on November 13, 2022, but we did play a small role in their coming together, as they wonderfully described on our recent Chanukah episode (which they won, the clear top choice of their own personal Best Of 2022 list I’m sure):
We finally made a match. All that’s left on our BINGO card is to get the wrong Chosen One with the right name.
- Who Knows One? Comes Full Circle
During a show back in February featuring the clergy from Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY (shoutout to Rabbis Annie Tucker and Adir Yolkut) and their counterparts at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles (featuring Rabbis Adam Kligfeld and Rebecca Schatz), we had a tiebreak round that challenged the contestants to find a Jewish person with the same name as a famous person, which we then adapted to include anyone who is Jewish AND is famous.
This led to the introduction of one Howie Schwab, who sports fans might remember from (among other things) the ESPN sports trivia game show in the mid-aughts that bore his name, “Stump the Schwab”.
As I mention in the video above, I met Howie when I was a contestant on Stump the Schwab back in the fall of 2005. This was a fairly seminal event in my life as it was the first time I’d ever been on a game show*, and I was excited to share it with everyone I knew when it aired.
*I also appeared on Sports Jeopardy. I didn’t win that either, and I’m still mad about both.
Howie getting brought onto Who Knows One? closed a Jewish Geography loop, which is kind of amazing in its own right, but deserves a little further elucidation for, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
I had a mailing list for a sports column I used to write called Hart Surgery (which you can still read if you know how to use the Wayback Machine), and I sent a note to everyone letting them know about my appearance and how to watch if they wanted.
One person on that list was a woman named Hilary Lesser, who I’d been on a few dates with earlier that year before it fell apart.
As a result of my email about the Schwab appearance, we struck up a conversation again, which led to a rekindling, and eventually, marriage and children and SPAIN.
And for that little slice of small world-dom and the opportunity to say hello again after all these years, it earns a very subjective #1 spot as the best moment of 2022.
