Photo Credit: Bill Ingalls - NASA.gov / Public Domain
President Obama presents Dylan with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, May 2012

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

The Literature category was the last category awarded this year by the Nobel committee. The move was a surprise, as its the first time the prize was given to someone primarily noted as a musician as opposed to a writer, though without a doubt, Dylan’s lyrics count as poetry.

Advertisement




There have been 15 Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates in the Literature category, including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Boris Pasternak. Jews make up 13% of the prize winners in Literature and 33% of the US winners.

In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Advertisement

SHARE
Previous articleDore Gold Resigns as Director-General of the MFA
Next articleBob Dylan in Israel
JewishPress.com brings you the latest in Jewish news from around the world. Stay up to date by following up on Facebook and Twitter. Do you have something noteworthy to report? Submit your news story to us here.