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Ezriel Carlebach

Ezriel Carlebach was a journalist and editor in Mandatory Palestine and early Israel, and the first editor of Yediot Ahronot and then Ma'ariv.

1908 to 1956Founding and editing Ma'arivFirst editor of Yediot AhronotReporting for the Yiddish daily Haynt

Born: 6 November 1908, Leipzig
Died: 12 February 1956, Tel Aviv
Occupation: journalist, writer, newspaper editor, opinion journalist
Education: Frederick William University Berlin, University of Hamburg, Telshe Yeshiva

Ezriel Carlebach was born in 1908 in Leipzig

Carlebach was born in Leipzig, Germany, into a family of rabbis. His father, Ephraim Carlebach, was a rabbi who founded a Jewish school in Leipzig. His cousin was the Hasidic singer Shlomo Carlebach.

He studied at yeshivas in Lithuania, including Telshe. In 1927 he moved to Mandatory Palestine and studied at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva under Rabbi Kook, but later became secular. He then studied at the universities of Berlin and Hamburg and earned a doctorate in law.

He wrote for the Yiddish daily Haynt and for Haaretz, and traveled to Jewish communities across Europe and the Mediterranean. In 1931 he became editor of the Israelitisches Familienblatt in Hamburg. He wrote against both the Soviet regime and the Nazi regime, and in 1934 the Nazis put him on a list of 37 traitors.

In 1937 he moved to the Land of Israel and wrote for Haaretz and Hatzofe. In 1939 he became the first editor of Yediot Ahronot. After a dispute with owner Yehuda Moses, he left with other journalists and founded Ma'ariv in 1948, which he edited until his death in 1956.