I Was So Much Older Then

by Sophie Taylor On music legend Bob Dylan’s birthday, take a look back at his origins withMoment’s “Unauthorized Spiritual Biography” of the singer. Seventy years ago today, Robert Zimmerman was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, a middle-of-nowhere town whose other claim to fame is its six-by-three mile open-air mine shaft. He grew up in a small but deeply Jewish community, studying for his bar mitzvah at a rock-‘n’-roll café and practicing in his garage. Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein chronicles Dylan’s small-town life, his arrival in Greenwich Village, and his early rise to fame, and explores the Jewish, then Christian, themes in his music. Dylan’s religiously inspired lyrics range from: Oh God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’/Abe says, ‘Man, you must be puttin’ me on’/God say ‘No.’ Abe say, ‘What?’/God say, ‘You can do what you want...

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This Week's Links

By Michelle Albert Jewish singer Bob Dylan is working on an album of Christmas music. Puns such as "Sleigh Lady Sleigh" and "A Hard Reindeer's A-Gonna Fall" are already making the rounds. (PS: read Moment's article about Bob Dylan here.) A swastika was painted outside Georgia congressman David Scott's door following a particularly heated health care debate. A Dutch journalist claims that the swine flu was created by Jews as a plot to control the world's population. Where is James Bond when you need him? David Mamet, author of The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred and the Jews, is going to write and direct the new film version of The Diary of Anne Frank for Disney. Former Hadassah CFO Sheryl Weinstein claims she had an affair with Bernie Madoff. Expect all the sordid details in her book...

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