Elliot E. Cohen (March 14, 1899 – May 28, 1959) was the founder and first editor of Commentary.
Early life and education
Cohen was born in Des Moines, Iowa and attended Yale University, where he contributed light verse to a campus humor magazine, The Yale Record.
Career
Menorah Journal
In the 1930s, he was a co-editor of the Menorah Journal with Herbert Solow.
Commentary
Cohen was the founder and first editor of Commentary, then published by the American Jewish Committee, from 1945 until his death by suicide in 1959.
During his tenure at Commentary, the magazine had a liberal point of view. His editorial position was filled by Norman Podhoretz in 1960, by Neal Kozodoy in 1995, and by John Podhoretz in 2009.
References
Further reading
Strauss, Lauren B. "Staying afloat in the Melting Pot: Constructing an American Jewish identity in the Menorah Journal of the 1920s." American Jewish History 84.4 (1996): 315-331. Wald, Alan M. The New York intellectuals: the rise and decline of the anti-stalinist left from the 1930s to the 1980s (U North Carolina Press, 2017).