[1] The magazine was launched in 2010 with an editorial board that included Michael Walzer and Ruth Wisse, Shlomo Avineri, Ruth Gavison,[2] and other prominent Jewish thinkers.

[5][6] According to The Jewish Week, the JRB is "unabashedly" modeled after the venerable New York Review of Books.

[5] Harvey Pekar and Tara Seibel collaborated on comic strips for the first two issues of the magazine.

[3][5] In 2022, the publication separated from the Tikvah Fund and is now run independently under the non-profit Jewish Review of Books Foundation, chaired by Jehuda Reinharz, with the Mandel Foundation providing the majority of the funding.

[8] Contributors have included Robert Alter, Elisheva Carlebach, David Ellenson, Daniel Gordis, Moshe Halbertal, Shai Held, Susannah Heschel, Dara Horn, Adam Kirsch, Jonathan Sacks, Haym Soloveitchik, David Wolpe, and Steven Zipperstein.