Commentary (magazine)

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Commentary
Image:Commentary.jpg Commentary #1, cover dated March 2006
Editor	Neal Kozodoy
Categories
Frequency	11 monthly; combined July-August issue
Circulation	27,000 / month
Publisher	Commentary Inc.
First issue	1945
Country	New York, United States
Language	English
Website	CommentaryMagazine.com
ISSN	0010-2601

Commentary is an American monthly magazine covering politics, international affairs, Judaism, and social, cultural, and literary issues.

1 History
2 Layout
3 In Popular Culture
4 Current Staff
5 Notable contributors
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Commentary was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945, and bills itself as "America's premier monthly magazine of opinion." Initially, its articles and stories were from a secular American Jewish perspective; now it is not adverse to theism. In its early days a strong voice for liberal anti-communism, the magazine turned left during the early 1960s. It reversed this leftward shift, in counter-countercultural fashion, starting in the late 1960s, and became what it still is—one of the primary homes of neoconservatism.^[1]^[2]

Currently edited by Neal Kozodoy, its founder and original editor was Elliot E. Cohen. He was succeeded after his death in 1959 by Norman Podhoretz, who served as editor-in-chief until 1995 and is currently the magazine's editor-at-large. Beginning in January 2008 the magazine will be edited by John Podhoretz.

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.

Also in January 2007, Commentary launched a new blog, contentions.

[edit] 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.

[edit] In Popular Culture

In the 1977 Woody Allen 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, Woody 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 Woody Allen's film Crimes and Misdemeanors, an issue of Commentary lies on a character's bedside table.