Jeffrey Goldberg

Jeffrey Goldberg
Born	Jeffrey Mark Goldberg September 22, 1965 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Journalist, writer
Notable credit(s)	The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, New York, The New Yorker, New York Book Review, The Forward, The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post, Slate
Spouse(s)	Pamela Ress Reeves (m. 1993; 3 children)
Awards	National Magazine Award, Overseas Press Club's Joe & Laurie Dine Award

Jeffrey Mark Goldberg (born September 22, 1965) is an Israeli-American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa. Michael Massing, an editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, called Goldberg "the most influential journalist/blogger on matters related to Israel".

Background

Goldberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Ellen H. and Daniel Goldberg. He was raised in Malverne, New York.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was editor-in-chief of The Daily Pennsylvanian. While at Penn he worked at the Hillel kitchen serving lunch to students. He left college to move to Israel, where he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a prison guard during the First Intifada.

He later returned to the United States to resume his journalism career. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Pamela Ress Reeves, and their three children.

Work

Goldberg began his career at The Washington Post, where he was a police reporter. While in Israel, he worked as a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, and upon his return to the US served as the New York bureau chief of The Forward, a contributing editor at New York magazine, and a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine.

The New Yorker

In October 2000, Goldberg joined The New Yorker. Two of his articles for the magazine have won awards.

His 2002 article "The Great Terror" won the Overseas Press Club's Joe & Laurie Dine Award for international human rights reporting. "The Overseas Press Club stated: "A former CIA director, James Woolsey, called the story 'a blockbuster.'"

In "The Great Terror", Goldberg reported that "the relationship between Saddam's regime and Al Qaeda is far closer than previously thought"; "...the possibility that Saddam could supply weapons of mass destruction to anti-American terror groups is a powerful argument among advocates of 'regime change,' as the removal of Saddam is known in Washington. These critics of Saddam argue that his chemical and biological capabilities, his record of support for terrorist organizations, and the cruelty of his regime make him a threat that reaches far beyond the citizens of Iraq"; and "Saddam’s desire is to expel the Jews from history."

In 2003 Goldberg's two-part examination of Hezbollah, "In the Party of God," won the National Magazine Award for reporting.

The Atlantic

In 2007, he was hired by David G. Bradley to write for The Atlantic. Bradley had tried to convince Goldberg to come work for The Atlantic for nearly two years, and was finally successful after renting ponies for Goldberg's children.

In September 2010, Goldberg wrote the cover story for the magazine, "The Point of No Return", which examined the potential consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. After reading the article, Fidel Castro invited Goldberg to Cuba to talk about the issue. During the course of their interviews, Castro, when asked by Goldberg if the Soviet-style Communism was still worth exporting, replied that "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore".

Slate

Goldberg has written sporadically for Slate. In the late 1990s he wrote the magazine's "Shopping Avenger" column. In 2004 he was a member of the Sopranos "TV Club." Four years later he contributed to the "TV Club" once again, this time for the dialogues on The Wire.

Bloomberg

Since 2011, Goldberg has been a Bloomberg View columnist. His editorials are also syndicated online, often appearing on such media sites as Newsday and Newsmax.

Books

Goldberg's book, Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide (New York: Knopf, 2006), describes his experiences in Israel working at the Ketziot military prison camp as well as his dialogue with Rafiq, a prisoner whom Goldberg would later befriend in Washington, DC.

American critics received the book positively as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times all named it one of the best books of 2006. The book sold 7,600 copies in hardcover and 3,200 in paperback, according to Nielsen Bookscan.

Political views

Iraq

In "The Great Terror", an article Goldberg wrote for The New Yorker in 2002, Goldberg argued that the threat posed to America by Saddam Hussein was significant. The article opened with a vivid description of Hussein's Al-Anfal Campaign, including his regime's use of poison gas at Halabja. Goldberg related detailed allegations of a close relationship between Hussein and Al Qaeda, which Goldberg says he "later checked with experts on the region." He argued that "If these charges are true, it would mean that the relationship between Saddam’s regime and Al Qaeda is far closer than previously thought" and concluded his article with a discussion of the Iraqi nuclear program, averring that there was "some debate among arms-control experts about exactly when Saddam will have nuclear capabilities. But there is no disagreement that Iraq, if unchecked, will have them soon... There is little doubt what Saddam might do with an atomic bomb or with his stocks of biological and chemical weapons." In a late 2002 debate in Slate, he described Hussein as "uniquely evil" and advocated an invasion on a moral basis.

Glenn Greenwald called Goldberg "one of the leading media cheerleaders for the attack on Iraq", claiming that "he compiled a record of humiliating falsehood-dissemination in the run-up to the war that rivaled Judy Miller's both in terms of recklessness and destructive impact."

Bibliography

Books

• Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide. New York: Knopf, 2006. ISBN 0-375-41234-4 (10). ISBN 978-0-375-41234-9 (13).

Critical studies and reviews

• Elena Lappin. "My Friend, My Enemy", New York Times Book Review, November 12, 2006.
• Watzman, Haim. "The Hope: A Middle East Correspondent's Troubled Friendship with the Palestinian He Once Kept Locked Up." Washington Post, October 29, 2006.
• Jaffee, Robert David. "Tools to Fight Terror: Big Dreams, Good Friends." The Jewish Journal, October 13, 2006.
• Bouldrey, Brian. "An attempt to bridge the divide between 2 men and 2 peoples; Ex-Israeli guard tells of bond with Palestinian Chicago Tribune, December 31, 2006.
• Kachka, Boris Brave Heart: Jeffrey Goldberg New York Magazine, October 16, 2006.

External links

• Jeffrey Goldberg's personal website
• Jeffrey Goldberg's Blog at The Atlantic
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jeffrey Goldberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Jeffrey Goldberg in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Jeffrey Goldberg from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum