Norman Podhoretz has defined intellectual leadership in publishing and magazines, framing the most important political, moral, and religious issues of our time. In awarding the Herzl Prize to Commentary's legendary former editor, the Tikvah Fund honors one of America's great generals in the battle of ideas.
John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz is the editor of Commentary magazine and a columnist at the New York Post. Previously, he has served as speechwriter to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He appears regularly on television as a political commentator on outlets such as Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Roger Hertog
Roger Hertog is the president of the Hertog Foundation, and chairman emeritus of Tikvah. One of the founding partners of the investment research and management firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., which he joined in 1968, Mr. Hertog served as the firm’s President before its merger with Alliance Capital Management in 2000. In 2006, he retired from the successor company, AllianceBernstein, and is currently vice-chairman emeritus. An alumnus of the City College of New York, Mr. Hertog was previously chairman of The New-York Historical Society and The Manhattan Institute; he has also served on the boards of the American Enterprise Institute, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Public Library, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy. In 2007, Mr. Hertog was awarded the Medal of the National Endowment for the Humanities in recognition of his philanthropic efforts. In 2010, he received the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.
Norman Podhoretz
Norman Podhoretz was born in 1930 in Brownsville, Brooklyn to immigrant Jewish parents and attended Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He received a full scholarship to Columbia College, where he became a protégé of Lionel Trilling and received his B.A. in English literature in 1950. Concurrently, he earned a B.A. in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was awarded a Kellett Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship and received a B.A. in Literature (1st) and an M.A. from Clare College, Cambridge. From 1953-1955, he served in the U.S. Army. In 1960 Mr. Podhoretz became Editor-in-Chief of Commentary magazine; he remained in that position until his retirement in 1995. He has been an adviser to the U.S. Information Agency and a Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute. In 2004 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Mr. Podhoretz’s books and articles include Why Are Jews Liberals? (2009), World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (2004), The Prophets: Who They Were, What They Are (2002), Ex-Friends (1999), The Bloody Crossroads: Where Literature and Politics Meet (1986), Why We Were in Vietnam (1982), The Present Danger: Do We Have the Will to Reverse the Decline of American Power? (1980), Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir (1979), Making It (1967), “My Negro Problem and Ours” (1964), “Hannah Arendt on Eichman: A Study in the Perversity of Brilliance” (1963), and “Israel, a Lamentation from the Future” (1989). He is the 2019 Herzl Prize Laureate.