Karski, Albright and Dylan Get Medals of Freedom
President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, Madeleine Albright and Bob Dylan, among other recipients.
Twelve of the 13 recipients received their medals in a ceremony Tuesday at the White House. Israeli President Shimon Peres will receive the medal in a separate event next month.
Karski, who died in 2000, was a Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to document the Nazi genocide against European Jews.
Albright, the former secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, learned in 1997 from a reporter that her parents hid her Jewishness from her. She recently wrote a book about her family’s Jewish heritage, “Prague Winter,” in which she discusses 25 relatives who perished during the Holocaust.
Dylan, who changed his last name from Zimmerman, transformed rock and folk music in the 1960s.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
