Norman Podhoretz
Norman Podhoretz (/pɒdˈhɔːrɪts/; born January 16, 1930) is an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator, who identifies his views as "paleo-neoconservative", but only "because (he's) been one for so long".[1] He is a writer for Commentary magazine, and previously served as the publication's editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995.[2][3]
Norman Podhoretz
January 16, 1930
New York City, U.S.
- Author
- political commentator
Early life and education[edit]
The son of Julius and Helen (Woliner) Podhoretz,[4] Jewish immigrants[5] from the Central European region of Galicia (then part of Poland, now Ukraine),[6] Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Podhoretz's family was leftist, with his elder sister joining a socialist youth movement. He skipped two grades and attended the prestigious Boys High School in the borough's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, ultimately graduating third in his class in 1946; his classmates included the prominent Assyriologist William W. Hallo and advertising executive Carl Spielvogel. Following his admission to Harvard University and New York University with partial tuition scholarships, Podhoretz ultimately elected to attend Columbia University when he was granted a full Pulitzer Scholarship.[7]
In 1950, Podhoretz received his BA degree in English literature from Columbia, where he was mentored by Lionel Trilling. He concurrently earned a second bachelor's degree in Hebrew literature from the nearby Jewish Theological Seminary of America; although Podhoretz never intended to enter the rabbinate, his father (who only attended synagogue on the High Holidays) wanted to ensure that his son was nonetheless conversant in "the intellectual tradition of his people",[7] as "a nonobservant New World Jew who ... treasured the Hebraic tradition".[8]
After being awarded the Kellett Fellowship from Columbia and a Fulbright Scholarship, he later received a second BA in literature with first-class honors and an Oxbridge MA from Clare College, Cambridge, where he briefly pursued doctoral studies after rejecting a graduate fellowship from Harvard. He also served in the United States Army from 1953 to 1955 as a draftee assigned to the Army Security Agency.[9]
Career[edit]
Podhoretz served as Commentary magazine's Editor-in-Chief from 1960 (when he replaced Elliot E. Cohen) until his retirement in 1995. Podhoretz remains Commentary's Editor-at-Large. In 1963, he wrote the essay "My Negro Problem—And Ours", in which he described the oppression he felt from African-Americans as a child, and concluded by calling for a color-blind society, and advocated "the wholesale merging of the two races [as] the most desirable alternative for everyone concerned."[10]
From 1981 to 1987, Podhoretz was an adviser to the U.S. Information Agency. From 1995 to 2003, he was a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2004. The award recognized Podhoretz's intellectual contributions as editor-in-chief of Commentary magazine and as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.[11]
Norman Podhoretz was one of the original signatories of the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century founded in 1997.[12] That organization sent a letter to President Clinton in 1998 advocating the removal by force of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Podhoretz received the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University on May 24, 2007.
He served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani in his 2008 presidential campaign.[13] The same year, he publicly advocated an American attack on Iran.[14]
Podhoretz's 2009 book Why Are Jews Liberals? questions why American Jews for decades have been dependable Democrats, often supporting the party by margins of better than two-to-one, even in years of Republican landslides.[15][16][17]
Personal life[edit]
Podhoretz attends a Conservative Jewish synagogue. The congregation emphasizes group study, serious praying, active participation by its members and religious services.[18]
Podhoretz was married to author Midge Decter[19] from 1956 until her death in 2022,[20] and together they had two children: syndicated columnist and Commentary editor-in-chief John Podhoretz and American-Israeli journalist Ruthie Blum. Norman Podhoretz said in early 2019, of his large family and its relation to his political views: "[I]f [Donald Trump] doesn't win in 2020, I would despair of the future. I have 13 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren, and they are hostages to fortune. So I don't have the luxury of not caring what's going to happen after I'm gone."[1] As of 2017, Podhoretz lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.[21]