Bernstein was born in
The Bronx on July 18, 1920, to Jewish parents Isidore Bernstein and Rebecca Axelrod, who were Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe. He graduated from
DeWitt Clinton High School in 1936 and in 1940 from
Columbia College, where he was
The New York Times's campus correspondent and joined the staff after graduation, against his father's wishes. On December 7, 1941, he was the first
Times staff member to report the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. He gained a reputation for covering
Broadway during the 1940s and joined
Time in 1948 as a film critic and was posted to
Rome and interviewed celebrities such as
Roberto Rossellini,
Vittorio De Sica, and
Gina Lollobrigida. Under his watch, the magazine won multiple honors, including two of the 11
National Magazine Awards in 1982: one for general excellence and the other for a single-topic issue titled "What Vietnam Did to Us." In 1982, he was at the center of a controversy when he decided to publish
William H. Bailey's "Portrait of S," a painting of a topless woman, to illustrate the magazine's cover story, which was immediately followed by a public backlash. Adding to the outcry was that the model was a niece of former
Connecticut Senator
Abraham Ribicoff who had been shot dead in a 1980 robbery after she exited a restaurant in
Venice, California. Bernstein was replaced by
William Broyles Jr. as editor in chief of
Newsweek in 1982. He continued to write book reviews and op-eds after retirement for
The New York Times, including a 1989 cover story for
The New York Times Magazine. == Awards ==