anent

Like A
Rolling
Stone

Kennedy Center
honoree
Bob Dylan's
Jewish journey
unplugged.

Kennedy
Center
honoree
Bob Dylan.

MORDECAI SPECKTOR
Special to The Jewish News

T

he world knows him as Bob
Dylan, the seminal 1960s
singer/songwriter who
penned such classics as
"Blowin' in the Wind", "Mr.
.
Tambourine Man", "I Shall Be
Released" and "Like a Rolling Stone."
Now, a new book, Just Like Bob
Zimmerman's Blues: Dylan in
Minnesota, by Dave Engel (Amherst

12/26
1997

82

Press; $19.95), chronicles Dylan's life
before he hit the big time.
Television viewers will have the
opportunity to glimpse that life —
and its impact on American culture —
at 9 p.m. tonight, when CBS broad-
casts "The Kennedy Center Honors: A
Celebration of the Performing Arts."
Taped on Dec. 7, the awards program
also honors Jewish performer Lauren
Bacall, who, like Dylan, was born
with a different name: Betty Persky.
Meanwhile, after a death scare earli-

er this summer from a viral infection
in the sac around the heart, Dylan is
again in the forefront with the release
of a critically acclaimed CD, Time
Out of Mind; a recent performance
before Pope John Paul II; and as the
father of the Wallflowers' Jakob
Dylan.
And while Dylan currently eschews
religion in his life — he recently told
Newsweek, "I don't adhere to rabbis,
preachers, evangelists, all of that ...
The songs are my lexicon. I believe

the songs" — the most famous Jew to
hail from Minnesota had a "normal"
Jewish upbringing.
Bob Zimmerman's Blues: Dylan in
Minnesota captures much of it. Dylan
was born Robert Allen Zimmerman
on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, the
biggest city on Lake Superior.
At his bris, his parents, Abe and
Beatrice Zimmerman, named him
Shabtai Zisel, in memory of his mater-
nal great-grandfather "Shabtai"
Solemovitz and his paternal grandfa-