Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz has been a leading writer and ideologue of the neoconservative movement since the group began to emerge in the late 1960s. Mr. Podhoretz edited the neoconservative flagship magazine Commentary from 1960 to 1995. He subsequently became a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and has  written twelve books, including “Making It,” which traces his rise to power among New York intellectuals, and “Breaking Ranks,” which explains his switch from liberalism to neoconservatism, and “Why Are Jews Liberals?” He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2004.

In 1950, Mr. Podhoretz earned his BA degree in English literature from Columbia University and  concurrently earned another bachelor’s degree in Hebrew literature from Jewish Theological Seminary of America. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship, he later received a second BA in literature with first-class honors and an MA from Clare College, Cambridge. He is also the father of journalist John Podhoretz and married to Midge Decter, two Jewish Policy Center Fellows.