Commentary (magazine)

Commentary is a monthly American magazine on religion, Judaism, Israel, politics, and social and cultural issues. Founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945 under Elliot E. Cohen, who served as editor from 1945 to 1959, Commentary magazine developed into the leading post-World War II journal of Jewish affairs. It strove to construct a new American Jewish identity while processing the events of the Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel, and the Cold War. Norman Podhoretz edited the magazine from 1960 to 1995. His son, John Podhoretz, is the current editor. Besides its coverage of cultural issues, Commentary provided a voice for the anti-Stalinist left. As Podhoretz shifted from a liberal Democrat to neoconservatism in the 1970s and 1980s, he moved the magazine with him to the right and toward the Republican Party.