Yoel Esteron

Yoel Esteron was born in 1955 in Holon

Esteron was born and raised in Holon. His father, a Holocaust survivor who managed Clalit health fund branches, changed the family name from Rabinovitz to Esteron in memory of his parents Esther and Aharon. His mother taught mathematics.

He attended Bialik elementary school and Kugel high school, and wrote as a youth reporter for Maariv LaNoar. He later earned a B.A. in economics and an M.A. in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He joined the IDF in 1973, first in the Golani Brigade and then at Army Radio as a military and diplomatic correspondent. After his service he worked as a reporter, editor and presenter on Israeli television.

In the 1980s he edited the weeklies Kol HaIr and HaIr, then reported from the United States for Hadashot and edited it until it closed in 1993. He was managing editor of Haaretz from 1994 to 2004, where he founded its English edition, and of Yedioth Ahronoth from 2005 to 2007.

He then founded Calcalist and later added its English site CTech and its conferences. He co-founded Shomrim, the Center for Media and Democracy, and chairs it. In April 2026 he announced he would retire from Calcalist.