Murray Polner

Murray Polner was a voice for pacifism and civil liberties and the founder and only editor of Present Tense magazine, a progressive counterpoint to Commentary that began in a period of one-upmanship among Jewish intellectuals. Past Tense which started as a quarterly in 1973 and was later published bimonthly, was a liberal Jewish journals taking on world affairs. Like Commentary, which was considered somewhat more highbrow and later branded as neoconservative, Present Tense was published by the American Jewish Committee, which blamed financial constraints when Present Tense was closed in 1990. Polner also authored some books including: Disarmed and Dangerous and the Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran. Murray Polner passed away on May 30, 2019 at the age of 91.