Murray Polner, "an unswerving 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," died May 30, the New York Times reported. He was 91.
A member of the Naval Reserve and an Army veteran who served in Japan during the Korean War, Polner evolved into a pacifist who opposed the draft and expressed empathy for the former soldiers he interviewed for his book No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran (1971).
His other books include When Can I Come Home? (1972), Rabbi: The American Experience, (1977), Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Lives and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan (1997, with Jim O'Grady) and Branch Rickey: A Biography (1982).