[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 214 (Thursday, December 18, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING NORMAN PODHORETZ

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 18, 2025

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, on December 16, 2025, 
America lost a Devoted Patriot with the death of Norman Podhoretz. As 
Hugh Hewitt, Fox News contributor said, ``What a great American Norman 
Podhoretz was.'' I include in the Record a grateful review of his 
accomplishments in his obituary below, published and written by Legacy:

       Norman Harold Podhoretz, a towering and often contentious 
     figure in American political thought whose editorial 
     leadership at Commentary magazine helped shape the 
     neoconservative movement, died December 16, 2025, in New York 
     City at the age of 95.
       Born January 16, 1930, Podhoretz grew up in New York City, 
     in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood. He was the son of 
     Jewish immigrants.
       Podhoretz attended Boys High School in Brooklyn's Bedford--
     Stuyvesant neighborhood and earned his undergraduate degree 
     in English literature from Columbia University in 1950. He 
     also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 
     and received degrees from Clare College, Cambridge 
     University.
       After serving in the U.S. Army in the 1950s, Podhoretz 
     began his career as a promising young literary critic, 
     contributing to Commentary by the early '50s. By 1960, at 
     just 30 years old, he was named editor-in-chief of 
     Commentary, the influential magazine of the American Jewish 
     Committee. Under his stewardship until 1995, he transformed 
     it from a relatively modest journal into a leading platform 
     for neoconservative thought.
       His editorial tenure helped launch and elevate the careers 
     of figures such as Jeane Kirkpatrick and Daniel Patrick 
     Moynihan, whose essays in Commentary contributed to their 
     later roles in public service.
       Podhoretz authored numerous books, most notably his 1967 
     memoir ``Making It,'' which candidly recounted his rise from 
     a Brooklyn upbringing to the center of American intellectual 
     life.
       His political evolution from liberal literary critic to one 
     of the nation's most vocal conservative commentators marked 
     much of his career. Often provocative, he pressed for 
     assertive U.S. foreign policy and became a leading voice 
     against Soviet detente and later, in the post-9/11 era, 
     global radical Islam.
       In 2004, Podhoretz received the Presidential Medal of 
     Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, from 
     President George W. Bush in recognition of his influence on 
     public discourse.
       Podhoretz was married to Midge Decter, a fellow 
     conservative writer and editor, from 1956 until her death in 
     2022. They had two children together: John Podhoretz, a 
     conservative columnist and editor, and Ruthie Blum, a 
     journalist. He also was stepfather to Rachel Decter Abrams, 
     who predeceased him.
       In announcing his death, his son said his father was ``a 
     man of great wit and a man of deep wisdom and he lived an 
     astonishing and uniquely American life.

     

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