Commentary is a monthly American magazine on religion, Judaism, Israel and politics, as well as social and cultural issues. Founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945 under Elliot E. Cohen, editor from 1945 to 1959, Commentary magazine developed into the leading post-World War II journal of Jewish affairs. The periodical strove to construct a new American Jewish identity while processing the events of the Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel, and the Cold War. Norman Podhoretz edited the magazine from 1960 to 1995.
In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a sociological term which is often used to describe white Protestant Americans of Northwestern European descent, who are generally part of the white dominant culture or upper-class and historically often the Mainline Protestant elite. Historically or most consistently, WASPs are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect. WASPs have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. Critics have disparaged them as "The Establishment". Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1960s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics, and philanthropy.
Robert L. Heilbroner was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some two dozen books, Heilbroner was best known for The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (1953), a survey of the lives and contributions of famous economists, notably Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes.
The Social Register is a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes the members of American high society. First published in the 1880s by newspaper columnist Louis Keller, it was later acquired by Malcolm Forbes. Since 2014, it has been owned by Christopher Wolf.
Louis Stanton Auchincloss was an American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novelist who parlayed his experiences into books exploring the experiences and psychology of American polite society and old money. His dry, ironic works of fiction continue the tradition of Henry James and Edith Wharton. He wrote his novels initially under the name Andrew Lee, the name of an ancestor who cursed any descendant who drank or smoked.
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow.
Norman Podhoretz 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". He is a writer for Commentary magazine, and previously served as the publication's editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995.
Jacob Henry Schiff was a German-born American banker, businessman, and philanthropist. He helped finance the expansion of American railroads and the Japanese military efforts against Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.
Burr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. His films include Igby Goes Down (2002) and 17 Again (2009). He is a nephew of writer Gore Vidal.
James Coats Auchincloss was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who represented northern coastal region of New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1943–1965. His district consisted of Monmouth County, Ocean County, and the part of Middlesex County south of the Raritan River.
Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr. was an American stockbroker and lawyer. He became the second husband of Nina S. Gore, mother of Gore Vidal, and also the second husband of Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Caroline Lee Bouvier.
Bret Louis Stephens is an American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a senior contributor to NBC News since 2017. Since 2021, he has been the inaugural editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations.
Joseph Seligman was an American banker and businessman who founded J. & W. Seligman & Co. He was the patriarch of what became known as the Seligman family in the United States and related to the wealthy Guggenheim family through Peggy Guggenheim's mother Florette.
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Zev Chafets is an American-Israeli author and columnist.
Adolph Lewisohn was a German Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist. He is the namesake of Lewisohn Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University, as well as the former Lewisohn Stadium at the City College of New York. Time magazine called him "one of the most intelligent and effective workers on human relationships in the U.S."
Geoffrey Theodore Hellman was an American journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker.
Middlesex School is a coeducational, independent, and non-sectarian boarding secondary school located in Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Founded in 1901 to educate the children of wealthy Boston Brahmin families, Middlesex introduced a national scholarship program in 1935 and currently educates 420 students from 32 U.S. states and 20 countries.
Isaac Moses was a Jewish merchant who helped establish the Bank of North America in 1781.
Emanuel Lehman was an American banker. He was the younger brother of Henry Lehman and the older brother of Mayer Lehman, and he was a co-founder of Lehman Brothers.
