Susan Stamberg, Iconic Jewish ‘Founding Mother’ of NPR, Dies at 87

Andrew Lapin | JTA

When Susan Stamberg first sat behind the microphone to host a newfangled broadcasting venture called National Public Radio in 1972, some board members had a concern: She sounded too Jewish.

Though that wasn’t quite how they tended to phrase it, recalled a colleague. Instead, NPR board members feared that the “All Things Considered” co-host was “too New York” for Midwest audiences.

“Besides being a woman, the Jewish element was another aspect,” Jack Mitchell, an early producer on the daily afternoon program, told NPR. “Here is somebody whose name is Stamberg. She had an obvious New York accent. Made no bones about it… And the president of NPR asked that I not put her in there for those — because of the complaints from managers.”

Stamberg went on the air anyway, and qu