Larry Grossman does not watch the evening news before going to bed. He doesn’t watch Jay Leno or David Letterman either. The Benicia resident has his computer rigged to his television so that, as he drifts off to sleep, he can watch things that are broadcast on the Internet.
One night it’s Israeli news; the next it’s a sermon from a New York-based rabbi, or perhaps a Matisyahu concert.
Grossman, who is a financial analyst by day, scours the Net for Jewish audio and video content in his spare time. He
then compiles it on his own Web site,
His hobby began some years ago while looking for new Jewish music on the Internet.
“I found I was really enjoying the music at first,” he said. “But then I began using other things.” Soon, he was listening to live Israeli radio.
The more Grossman found, the more he thought others would enjoy, too. So he taught himself how to build a Web site.
While his site is mostly a labor of love, Grossman does have another goal. As someone who has worked in cable television, he said, “I think it’s vital that the Jewish community have better communication.”
Noting the limited market for television shows of Jewish interest — and that when they do exist, they air in the least desirable time slots — he said the Internet had vast potential.
“I’ve become a bit of a nut about this,” Grossman admits. “I have an automatic search engine constantly looking for new things.”
While there are other Web sites that do the same thing, they aren’t particularly effective, Grossman said. He decided to make his own because the others were not updated frequently and therefore had many dead links, in Web parlance (meaning links that lead nowhere).
Grossman’s site isn’t the flashiest, but it is easy to use.
The site has about 100 visitors a day. Although he does not advertise, many Jewish organizations have linked to his site.
“There are a lot of voices out there, and I think it’s important that those voices be heard,” Grossman said. “I’m doing my best to allow people to hear the voices out there, and having a great time doing it.”
At one point, Grossman spent several hours a day updating his site. Although he had to give that up, he still spends five to 10 hours a week on it.
“No one else is crazy enough to do this,” he said. “I’ve told a lot of people, if someone gets into this, I’ll get out of it. I’ve got a business to run, and I would welcome a younger Jewish entrepreneur to take it and run with it and make it really sing. But, if that doesn’t happen, I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing.”