You could try a build from git but if you are not familiar with terminals it might be a bit tricky. I can tell you that there is no reason a future version will suddenly work. It's not a problem with Electrum but the tools used to build a binary version from the Python source. Is there anybody else with the same problem on OS X?
I just tried 1.6.1 with the same result so decided to try some things in the command line. Ran it with -v and got:
localhost:MacOS s$ ./Electrum -v
path /Users/s/.electrum/electrum.dat
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Illegal instruction: 4
So then I renamed the electrum.dat file and tried to recover my old wallet and got:
localhost:MacOS s$ ./Electrum -v
path /Users/s/.electrum/electrum.dat
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Using random server...
electrum.no-ip.org:50001:t
electrum.bitcoin.cz:50001:t
missing tx []
Illegal instruction: 4
Finally I deleted the electrum.dat file and this time created a new wallet and it seems to fail in a similar manner except this time 5 new addresses were generated before the crash. Is there anything here that might lead to a solution? Is there anything else I can try?