Another Nobel Laureate Discovered To Have Belarusian Roots

His ancestors came to the U.S. from Hrodna or the Hrodna Governorate.

In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan, the legendary American musician and songwriter. However, it turns out that he has Belarusian roots, according to the "Poisk Predkov". (Ancestor Search) Telegram channel.

Dylan’s paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odesa to the U.S. after the anti-Semitic pogrom of 1905. His maternal grandparents, Ben and Florence Stone, arrived in the U.S. in 1902.

According to the channel’s author, she reviewed multiple sources: "The birthplace of Dylan’s maternal ancestors is listed as either Lithuania or Russia. Some researchers believe it to be Kovno/Kaunas, but their claims are based on burial records rather than actual documents."

The researcher analyzed U.S. census records and found no mention of the city from which the Edelsteins (Dylan’s grandmother’s maiden name) emigrated. However, ship manifests, which contained passenger information, did provide relevant data. Benjamin Edelstein (1869–1961) and his wife Lebe Edelstein (1872–1942)—the parents of Florence Stone and Bob Dylan’s great-grandparents—came from Hrodna.

However, as noted in the report, this could refer not only to the city of Hrodna but to the Hrodna Governorate. Interestingly, Belarus’s National Historical Archive in Grodno holds a 1898 case file titled "On the Collection of a Fine for an Overdue Foreign Passport from Lapin, Edelstein, and Others."

Nobel Laureates with Belarusian Origins:

Simon Kuznets (born in Pinsk) – Economics, 1971

Menachem Begin (born in Brest) – Peace Prize, 1978

Shimon Peres (born in Vishneva, now Valozhyn District, Minsk Region) – Peace Prize, 1994

Zhores Alferov (born in Vitebsk) – Physics, 2000

Additionally, in 1982, British-South African biochemist Aaron Klug won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Some sources claim he was born in Zhelvas, Lithuania, while others suggest Zelva, Belarus.

In 2015, Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 2022, Ales Bialiatski, a Belarusian political prisoner, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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