Bob Dylan’s Bohemian Zionism – It wouldn’t be entirely fair to say that Dylan abandoned his Jewishness, especially if we consider a recording of his from 1983: “Neighborhood Bully.” | Jewish Journal

This week, we celebrate the 81st birthday of Robert Allen Zimmerman, one of America’s most celebrated singer-songwriters. Many American Jews know that Zimmerman went on to change his name to Bob Dylan in a bid for palatability among mainstream American audiences, and perhaps many of us are conditioned to resent this — to view it as an act of internalized antisemitism or need for assimilation. I can’t argue with this critique, though I will say that Dylan was hardly alone in this, as American Jews changed their surnames by the thousands in the twentieth century for both professional and social concerns. Like it or not, that is our story in this country. It also wouldn’t be entirely fair to say that Dylan abandoned his Jewishness either, especially if we consider a less popular albeit prominent recording of his from 1983: “Neighborhood Bully.”