TIME names Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year

By Katherine Clarke December 15, 2010

In a surprise decision, Time magazine today disregarded the people’s choice of WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange for Person of the Year and opted for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The accolade, awarded to the individual who has “for better or for worse…done the most to influence the events of the year,” according to the magazine, would have been better suited to Assange, various media outlets have argued.

Not surprising, several Jewish websites have shown support for the selection of Zuckerberg, one of the world’s youngest billionaires and philanthropists (and a Jew).

Other runners up to the prize included the Tea Party, the Chilean miners and Hamid Karzai.

Zuckerberg is the third Jewish man to have received Time’s award: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke have been honored in the past.

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