The Press and Politics in Israel: The Jerusalem Post from 1932 to the Present

by Erwin Frenkel

Overview

"This book [documents] the interaction between the performance of a newspaper and the [...] political conduct of a society. Perhaps, the telling of such a story might be a small step toward the larger understanding of press and politics that still eludes us. The political society at the center of this story is Israel, the press is the Israeli press, and the newspaper is The Jerusalem Post. The story traces the decline of Israel's liberal-secular ethos, which, paradoxically, was accompanied by the rise of a more assertive and irreverent press. It is a paradox within another: the decline of a centralized party system, dominated by an oligarchic elite committed to parliamentary democracy, and its displacement by a free-wheeling system of factions that pulls to the political Right." — Erwin Frenkel, Preface to The Press and Politics in Israel: The Jerusalem Post from 1932 to the Present

"This elegantly written, thoughtful book manages to be history, philosophy, and personal document at the same time. As a clear-eyed observer (he worked for the Jerusalem Post for almost 30 years and served as its editor for 13 of them), Erwin Frenkel gives us an informal account of this English-language newspaper from its founding in 1932 to the early 1990s, against a background of the transformation of Zionism and Israel during these years and the changing relationship between press, politics, and public opinion in a free society. This is a touching memoir by an acute unassuming, highly intelligent man." — Congress Monthly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186573166
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	03/22/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Erwin Frenkel was born an only child in the small rural village of Sohren, Germany in 1933. His family fled the Nazis in 1937 and emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City and then in Erie, Pennsylvania. Frenkel graduated from Academy High School in Erie, received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and his M.A. in history from Harvard University in 1956 before coming to study in Israel in 1958 where he settled permanently in 1960. He joined the Jerusalem Post as a temporary diplomatic reporter and was made a permanent staff member in 1961. He served as an editorial writer, news editor, features editor and, with Ari Rath, shared the position of Editor-in-Chief for nearly 15 years. As he recounts in his 1994 book, The Press and Politics in Israel: The Jerusalem Post from 1932 to the Present, Frenkel resigned in 1989 after the newspaper was purchased by Hollinger Inc., a Canadian media company based in Toronto which took the Jerusalem Post’s editorial policy in a different direction. Between 2001 and 2017, Frenkel and his wife Etha ran the Beit Frenkel bed & breakfast in the Galilee.