Commentary (magazine)

Commentary

Editor	John Podhoretz
Frequency	11 monthly; combined July-August issue
Circulation	33,000 / month
First issue	1945
Company	Commentary Inc.
Country	New York, United States
Language	English
Website	commentarymagazine.com
ISSN	0010-2601

Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the anti-communist left. The magazine was one of the leading voices of neoconservatism by 1976, and remains so today, although in the 21st century it has less influence than before.^{[citation needed]} Benjamin Balint says it was the "Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right"^[1] Historian Richard Pells concludes that "no other journal of the past half century has been so consistently influential, or so central to the major debates that have transformed the political and intellectual life of the United States."^[2]

History

Commentary was the successor to the Contemporary Jewish Record. When the Record's editor died in 1944, its publisher, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) consulted with New York intellectuals including Daniel Bell and literary critic Lionel Trilling. They recommended the AJC hire Elliot Cohen (1899-1959) to start a new journal. He had been an editor of a Jewish cultural magazine and was now a fundraiser.

Commentary had the mission of being a nonpartisan journal focusing on Jewish affairs and other contemporary issues--a sort of Jewish Harper's, only more scholarly.^{[citation needed]} Cohen designed the new magazine to reconnect assimilated Jews and Jewish intellectuals with the broader, more traditional and very liberal Jewish community. At the same time Commentary would bring the ideas of the young Jewish intellectuals to a wider audience. It demonstrated that Jewish intellectuals, and by extension all American Jews, had turned away from their past political radicalism to embrace mainstream American culture and values.

Cohen stated his grand design in the first issue:^[3]

"With Europe devastated, there falls upon us here in the United States a far greater share of the responsibility for carrying forward, in a creative way, our common Jewish cultural and spiritual heritage...to harmonize heritage and country into a true sense of at-home-ness."

As Podhoretz put it, Commentary was to lead the Jewish intellectuals "out of the desert of alienation...and into the promised land of democratic, pluralistic, and prosperous America."^[3]

Cohen brought on board strong editors who themselves wrote important essays, including Irving Kristol; art critic Clement Greenberg; film and cultural critic Robert Warshow; and sociologist Nathan Glazer. Commentary paid well and published such rising stars as Hannah Arendt, Daniel Bell, Sidney Hook, and Irving Howe.^{[citation needed]}

Although many or even most of the editors and writers had been socialists, Trotskyites or Stalinists in the past, that was no longer tolerated. Commentary articles were anti-Communist--but also anti-McCarthyite; it identified and attacked any perceived weakness among liberals on cold war issues, giving full backing to President Harry Truman's new Cold War policies such as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO. The "soft-on-Communism" position of the CIO and Henry Wallace came under steady attack.^{[citation needed]}

Liberals who vehemently hated Joseph McCarthy were annoyed when Irving Kristol wrote at the height of the controversy that "there is one thing that the American people know about Senator McCarthy: he, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesmen for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing."^[4]

Podhoretz as editor, 1960-1995

In the late 1950s the magazine sagged, as Cohen suffered from mental illness and committed suicide. A protégé of Lionel Trilling, Norman Podhoretz (b. 1930) took over in 1960, running the magazine with an iron hand until his retirement in 1995.^[5] Podhoretz proved a brilliant, pugnacious, and combative editor. He reduced the space given to Jewish issues and, most importantly, moved Commentary's ideology sharply left. Circulation soared to 60,000 as the magazine became a mainstay of the Washington liberal elite in the heyday of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Moving right

The emergence of the New Left--which was bitterly hostile to Johnson, to capitalism and to universities--angered Podhoretz by its shallowness and, especially, by its hostility to Israel in the 1967 war. Articles attacked the New Left on questions ranging from crime, the nature of art, drugs, poverty, to the new egalitarianism; Commentary argued that the New Left was a dangerous anti-American, anti-liberal, and anti-Semitic force. The shift helped define the emerging neoconservative movement and gave space to disillusioned liberals.

As the readership base shifted to the right, Commentary filled a vacuum for conservative intellectuals, who otherwise were reliant on William F. Buckley's National Review. In March 1975, Daniel Patrick Moynihan's article "The United States in Opposition," urged America to vigorously defend liberal democratic principles when they were attacked by Soviet-bloc and Third World dictatorships at the United Nations. Soon President Gerald Ford appointed Moynihan as be ambassador to the United Nations, where his outspoken advocacy of American values led to election to the Senate in 1976. Political scientist Jeane Kirkpatrick's November 1979 denunciation of the foreign policy of President Jimmy Carter, "Dictatorships and Double Standards," impressed Ronald Reagan, who defeated Carter in 1980. In 1981 he appointed her to the United Nations ambassadorship and Commentary reached the apogee of its influence.

Current

Commentary is currently edited by Norman Podhoretz's son John. The elder Podhoretz, who served as editor-in-chief until 1995, is currently the magazine's editor-at-large. Neal Kozodoy was editor between 1995 and January 2009.

The magazine is no longer affiliated with the American Jewish Committee. In 2007, Commentary, Inc., an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit enterprise, became the magazine's publisher.^[6]

In January 2007 Commentary launched a new blog, contentions.

In 2011 it announced plans to give its archives from 1945 to 1995 to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.^[7]

Layout

Currently, Commentary prints letters to the editor that comment on various articles three issues earlier. The more critical and lengthy letters tend to be printed first and the more praiseful letters last. The author of the article being discussed almost always replies in a follow-up to his critics. Each issue has several reviews of books on varying topics. Commentary usually assigns a review to books written by notable contributors to the magazine.

In popular culture

Commentary has been referenced in several Woody Allen films. In the 1977 movie Annie Hall, Allen (as character Alvy Singer) makes a pun by saying that he heard that Dissent and Commentary had merged to form "Dysentery". In Bananas, as an old lady is threatened on a subway car, Allen hides his face by holding up an issue of Commentary. This image is featured at the New York City Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, an issue of Commentary lies on a character's bedside table.

Current staff

• Editor, John Podhoretz
• Senior Editor, Abe Greenwald
• Associate Editor, Katherine Eastland
• Editor-at-Large, Neal Kozodoy
• Chief Culture Critic, Terry Teachout
• Senior Online Editor, Jonathan S. Tobin
• Digital Media Associate, Kejda Gjermani
• Art Director, Carol Moskot
• Business Director, Ilya Leyzerzon
• Business Manager, Stephanie Roberts
• Office Manager, Whitney Lee

Contributors

S.Y. Agnon Elliott Abrams Hannah Arendt Robert Alter Paul Auster James Baldwin Daniel Bell Saul Bellow William Bennett David Berger Peter Ludwig Berger Allan Bloom Harold Bloom Max Boot Robert Bork Peter Brimelow David Brooks William Buckley Mona Charen Gordon Chang Linda Chavez Eliot A. Cohen Seth Cropsey David G. Dalin Lucy Dawidowicz Midge Decter Alan Dershowitz Dinesh D'Souza Joseph Epstein Douglas J. Feith Leslie Fiedler David Frum Francis Fukuyama Frank Gaffney Sir Martin Gilbert Nathan Glazer Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Allegra Goodman Paul Goodman Clement Greenberg John Gross Boris Gulko Ernest van den Haag Hillel Halkin Albert Halper Oscar Handlin Victor Davis Hanson Michael Harrington Jeffrey Hart David Hazony Joseph Heller Richard Herrnstein Arthur Hertzberg Gertrude Himmelfarb Milton Himmelfarb

Richard Hofstadter Sidney Hook David Horowitz Irving Howe H. Stuart Hughes Samuel Huntington Carol Iannone Tamar Jacoby Josef Joffe Daniel Johnson Paul Johnson Donald Kagan Frederick Kagan Robert Kagan Efraim Karsh Leon Kass Jacob Katz Alfred Kazin Alan Keyes Jeane Kirkpatrick Martin Kramer Charles Krauthammer Irving Kristol William Kristol Walter Laqueur Christopher Lasch F. R. Leavis Michael Ledeen Michael Levin Bernard Lewis Guenter Lewy Seymour Martin Lipset John Lukacs Dwight MacDonald Heather MacDonald Norman Mailer Bernard Malamud Thomas Mann Leo Marx Andrew C. McCarthy Scott McConnell Hans J. Morgenthau Daniel Patrick Moynihan Joshua Muravchik Charles Murray Richard John Neuhaus Jacob Neusner Reinhold Niebuhr Robert Nisbet Michael Novak Michael B. Oren George Orwell John O'Sullivan Amos Oz Cynthia Ozick

Martin Peretz Richard Perle Joan Peters William Pfaff Daniel Pipes Richard Pipes Steven Plaut John Podhoretz Norman Podhoretz Noah Pollak Norman Ravitch Mordecai Richler Paul Craig Roberts Peter W. Rodman Henry Roth Philip Roth Giuseppe Sacco Jean-Paul Sartre Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. Gabriel Schoenfeld Sam Schulman Delmore Schwartz Stephen Schwartz Daniel Seligman Nathan Sharansky Martin Sieff Fred Siegel Isaac Bashevis Singer Susan Sontag Thomas Sowell Bret Stephens Leo Strauss George Szamuely Philip Taft Amir Taheri Terry Teachout Dorothy Thompson Nathan Thrall Hugh Trevor-Roper Lionel Trilling Robert C. Tucker Robert W. Tucker Leopold Tyrmand David Twersky Ron Unz John Updike Ben J. Wattenberg George Weigel Elie Wiesel James Q. Wilson Ruth Wisse Robert S. Wistrich A. B. Yehoshua Karl Zinsmeister

References and further reading

1. ^ Benjamin Balint, The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right (2010)
2. ^ Quoted from Murray Friedman (ed.): Commentary in American Life, Philadelphia 2005, Temple UP.
3. ^ ^{a b} Ehrman, John (1999-06-01) Commentary, the Public Interest, and the Problem of Jewish Conservatism, American Jewish History
4. ^ Richard H. Pells, The liberal mind in a conservative age: American intellectuals in the 1940s (1989) p. 296
5. ^ Thomas L. Jeffers, Norman Podhoretz: A Biography (2010) pp. 20, 62, 129, 145
6. ^ "Commentary, American Jewish Committee Separate". The New York Sun. http://www.nysun.com/new-york/commentary-american-jewish-committee-separate/45574/. 
7. ^ See announcement

Bibliography

• Balint, Benjamin. Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right (PublicAffairs; 2010) 290 pages
• Ehrman, John. "Commentary, the Public Interest, and the Problem of Jewish Conservatism," American Jewish History 87.2&3 (1999) 159-181. online in Project MUSE, scholarly article by conservative historian
• Jeffers, Thomas L. Norman Podhoretz: A Biography (2010)

Primary sources

• Podhoretz, Norman. Breaking Ranks (1979), memoir
• Nathan Glazer, Thomas L. Jeffers, Richard Gid Powers, Fred Siegel, Terry Teachout Ruth R. Wisse et al. in Commentary in American Life, ed. Murray Friedman. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005

External links

• New York Sun article on who attends the annual Commentary-hosted gathering
• More bio bits on Cohen and Commentary history
• Nathan Abrams, Commentary Magazine 1945–1959: 'A Journal of Significant Thought and Opinion. Bio on Cohen and Commentary's early history
• Weekly Standard article on Commentary

• What Does Reform Judaism Stand For?. Commentary. Published June 2008.

External links

• Commentary website
• contentions blog