The History of Commentary Magazine

Founded and published by the American Jewish Committee in 1945, Commentary magazine found a new audience and increased prominence during the 1960s and through the 1970s. Edited by neoconservative Norman Podhoretz from 1960-1965, Commentary frequently featured his wife Midge Decter, a fellow neoconservative intellectual and frequent critic of feminist figures like Betty Friedan. Among the other topics Commentary frequently covered was Zionism and foreign policy in relation to Israel, particularly after 1967's Six Day War, a brief but brutal military conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, which resulted in Israel's decisive victory.

 

Hear more from curators Ronnie Grinberg and Daniel Schwartz.

All We Have Standing Between Us: 250 Years of Jews and American Democracy
  1. Welcome to All We Have Standing Between Us
  2. Haym Salomon Bill of Exchange, 1784
  3. Portrait of Rebecca Gratz, 1858
  4. Portraits of the Brandon Rodrigues siblings, c. 1815
  5. Telegram from the Solomon Family in Response to General Ulysses S. Grant’s Expulsion Order
  6. Judah P. Benjamin and American Jews and the Slave Trade
  7. Emma Lazarus's Manuscript Book
  8. The Founding of the Anti-Defamation League
  9. The Election of Franklin D. Roosevelt
  10. The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
  11. The Murder of the Mississippi Three
  12. Jews and the March on Washington, 1963
  13. The History of Commentary Magazine
  14. Rep. Steve Israel on Finding a "Jewish Caucus"
  15. Rep. Steve Israel Recalls the Events of 9/11