(JTA) – Jewish celebrities Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Stephen Sondheim and Itzhak Perlman will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award given by the United States. They will be among 17 Americans “who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors” to receive the award, the White House announced Thursday, Nov. 12. Spielberg has won three Academy Awards; Streisand has won two Academy Awards and 10 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award; Sondheim has won eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize and a Laurence Olivier Award; Perlman, who grew up in Israel, has won 15 Grammys and is considered to be among the greatest violinists in the world.