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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO