HAARETZ

HAARETZ (Heb. הָאָרֶץ), Israeli daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv. Established on June 18, 1919, by a group of businessmen headed by Isaac Leib *Goldberg and S. Salzmann, it was originally named Hadashot Haaretz. Edited by N. *Touroff, the contributors were Hebrew writers and journalists, recent immigrants from Russia. Its name was subsequently changed to Haaretz. The newspaper has since then had four editors. Dr. Moshe Gluecksohn was appointed editor in 1922, serving until 1939, a period during which the paper moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Gluecksohn's influence as editor was paramount, and during his editorship the paper acquired its liberal orientation. It was noted for its quality of writing, including its literary supplement. Its weak financial base made the newspaper dependent partly on philanthropists, including subsidies from Zionist institutions. In 1939 Salman *Schocken, a German immigrant, acquired the paper, appointing his son Gershom *Schocken as editor and publisher, a post he held for 51 years, and one characterized by absolute freedom of expression. Becoming an elitist highbrow newspaper, Haaretz was identified with the liberal wing of the Zionist movement. Its editorial policy was characterized by a minimalist stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and supported territorial withdrawal from territories captured in the 1967 war. Economically, the newspaper championed free enterprise in the face of the country's socialist ethos. It saw human rights as a supreme value. It supported separation of religion and state. While he saw the newspaper as an ideological vehicle, Schocken succeeded in strengthening its weak economic base, partly through establishing a chain of local newspapers in the 1980s. Upon his death in 1990, his son, Amos, became publisher, and Hanoch Marmori, editor. A graphic artist, and previously editor of Ha-Ir, the Schocken chain's local Tel Aviv newspaper, Marmori shook off the stuffy German heritage of the newspaper and attracted younger and non-Ashkenazi readers. In addition to the two main sections for news and for features and editorial comment, Marmori introducted a lifestyle section called "Galley," featuring culture and entertainment pieces, and a midweek Books Supplement. Noteworthy was its coverage of developments in the Palestinian Authority created after the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Intifada beginning in 2000 brought to the surface sharp divisions inside the editorial board between a left of center stance, identified with Marmori, and the more extreme left-wing position of other editorial board members and the publisher, Amos Schocken, whose views reflected a "post-Zionism" outlook. Marmori resigned in 2004 after Schocken separated the newspaper's economic section from the main paper and made it an editorially independent supplement called "The Marker." David *Landau was appointed as Marmori's replacement. In 2005 the newspaper's circulation was 70,000 daily and 90,000 on weekends. Haaretz's influence broadened with the establishment in 1997 of an English edition, of which Landau was the founding editor, which included the local printing of the International Herald Tribune and which had a daily circulation in 2005 of 12,000 and 20,000 on weekends. According to Haaretz, the newspaper's Internet websites in Hebrew and English had, respectively 700,000 and 1 million monthly users in 2005.

bibliography:

O. Elyada, "Haaretz 1918–1937: From an Establishment-Sponsored Newspaper to a Commercial Newspaper," in: Kesher, 29 (2001) (Heb.); A. Katzman, "In the Liberal Tradition: Haaretz," in: Kesher, 25 (1999) (Heb.); G. Kressel, Toledot ha-Ittonut ha-Ivrit be-EreẓYisrael (1964), 118–52.

[Yoel Cohen (2^nd ed.)]