Plan B Forum

The Secret Jewish History of Bruce Springsteen — on His 70th Birthday

It wasn’t all that long ago when The New York Times misspelled the Boss’s last name as “Springstein,” reminding those of us old enough to remember that, early in Bruce Springsteen’s career, it was commonly thought — or secretly hoped by some — that this rock ’n’ roll messiah was Jewish. That rumor, given further credence in this year’s film “Blinded by the Light,” was put to rest for good once Springsteen’s 1975 breakthrough album, “Born to Run,” garnered him the cover stories of both Time and Newsweek magazines in the same week. Besides fitting Springsteen for Elvis Presley’s fallen crown, the articles revealed little-known biographical facts including, alas, that Bruce was Italian on his mother’s side and Dutch-Irish on his father’s.