Local news

Danny Cohn’s alternate ambition?

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-Chief

Published August 7, 2025

That Danny Cohn is now president and CEO of Jewish Federation of St. Louis and, as he reports, is “loving it,” sometimes even surprises him.

As a kid, his dream wasn’t running a Federation, it was belting show tunes in a dimly lit cabaret. So what derailed his path to Broadway?

“My mother told me I needed to get a degree that would pay me money,” he said matter-of-factly.

He recounts a laugh-out-loud story from when he was 7, visiting his grandparents in Cheyenne, Wyo., during Frontier Rodeo Days. While there, he decided to rehearse for an upcoming audition for a school talent show back home in Omaha, Neb. There he was, little Danny Cohn, dressed head to toe in full cowboy regalia (it was Frontier Rodeo Days, after all), ready to shine.

“My grandmother says to my mom, ‘Well, what does he know?’ And my mom sits down, and I start singing ‘Dance 10, Looks Three’ from ‘A Chorus Line,’ ” he recalled.

For anyone familiar with that particular number, it’s not, let’s just say, exactly age-appropriate for a second-grader. His mom, who was a music teacher before becoming a principal, stepped in with a quick musical course correction, teaching him “The Beautiful Land,” originally sung by Anthony Newley, from “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.”

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful song,” Cohn said.

Unfortunately, stage fright struck.

“Consequently, I got spooked at my audition, and I cried and never got to sing the song,” he said.

That wasn’t the curtain on his singing career, though. He performed in school choirs, was a nationally ranked opera baritone and even served as cantor for Kol Nidre services at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Kansas.

“The last time I sang in public was 2021, when we were doing a (Federation) women’s event in Birmingham (where he was CEO),” he said. “And I did a cabaret show where I weaved my life into the show. We did it at the country club. We had 150 women there. It was the best.”

These days, Cohn sings only in “fun situations.” Which is why he’s agreed to perform at the Jewish Light’s Passover Project event next spring. (You heard it here first, kids.)

Cabaret dreams may fade, but give the man a mic, some matzah and an audience, and our bet is he’ll bring the house down.

— Ellen Futterman

About the Contributor

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-Chief

A native of Westbury, New York, Ellen Futterman broke into the world of big city journalism as a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in the latter part of the 20th century. Deciding that Tinsel Town was not exciting enough for her, she moved on to that hub of glamour and sophistication, Belleville, Ill., where she became a feature writer, columnist and food editor for the Belleville News-Democrat. A year later the St. Louis Post-Dispatch scooped her up, neither guessing at the full range of her talents, nor the extent of her shoe collection. She went on to work at the Post-Dispatch for 25 years, during which time she covered hard news, education, features, investigative projects, profiles, sports, entertainment, fashion, interiors, business, travel and movies. She won numerous major local and national awards for her reporting on “Women Who Kill” and on a four-part series about teen-age pregnancy, ‘Children Having Children.'” Among her many jobs at the newspaper, Ellen was a columnist for three years, Arts and Entertainment Editor, Critic-at-large and Daily Features (Everyday) Editor. She invented two sections from scratch, one of which recently morphed from Get Out, begun in 1995, to GO. In January of 2009, Ellen joined the St. Louis Jewish Light as its editor, where she is responsible for overseeing editorial operations, including managing both staff members and freelancers. Under her tutelage, the Light has won 16 Rockower Awards — considered the Jewish Pulitzer’s — including two personally for Excellence in Commentary for her weekly News & Schmooze column. She also is the communications content editor for the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. Ellen and her husband, Jeff Burkett, a middle school principal, live in Olivette and have three children. Ellen can be reached at 314-743-3669 or at [email protected].