Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

March 13, 2026

From Jewish Red-Diaper Baby to Musical New Left Icon

Country Joe McDonald.

On Saturday, Joseph Allen (a/k/a “Country Joe”) McDonald died at the age of eighty-four. McDonald, a navy veteran, was almost the quintessence of the 1960s folk musician: playing acoustic guitar, performing with his band at Woodstock, rubbing elbows with such figures as Allen Ginsberg, protesting the Vietnam war, and getting caught up in the counterculture and the New Left. He also shares much in common with the individuals of that era Harvey Klehr discussed in his recent Mosaic essay, “How the Communist Party Created Jewish Anti-Zionism.” Hillel Italie writes: 

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