Listomania: Eight Jewish Musical Icons To Celebrate On This Final Night of Chanukah

By Pete Freedman Fri., Dec. 18 2009 at 4:44 PM

When the sun sets this evening, the final night of Chanukah will commence, ending an eight-day spree of phone calls from nagging Jewish mothers and the always pleasant gifting and receiving of holiday socks.

Also coming to its unfortunate annual close? The (adorable) singing of the Chanukah prayer as the candles of the menorah are lit. But, surely, this eight-day stretch isn't the only time of year in which the Jewish people rock.

On that note, we present to you the following list, wherein we've, ahem, chosen our eight favorite Jewish musical icons--a mitzvah if ever we saw one.

If nothing else, we believe this list stands as empirical proof that bagels, although fantastic, are not the greatest thing our people have contributed to modern society.

Bob Dylan
Little-known, not-at-all true fact about the man born Robert Allen Zimmerman: Originally, his song "Blowin' in the Wind" was about the flames atop the candles in the menorah.

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel
The folk-singing duo is credited with a lot of things these days--not the least of which is its early, spot-on affection for older ladies. Then, we called her, "Ms. Robinson"; today, we call her "Cougar." But there exists a less, but still notable, reveal within the fine song, remembered for its prominent affiliation with the movie The Graduate, the young Jewish man's obsession with the phenomenon known as the Shiksa Goddess. (Unclear? Ask a Jewish co-worker familiar with Yiddish.)