Ezriel Carlebach

Ezriel Carlebach was a journalist and editorial writer who became one of the most influential figures in the Hebrew press of Mandatory Palestine and the early state of Israel. Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1908 and educated in Germany and France, he emigrated to Palestine and worked as a journalist for the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, eventually becoming its editor in chief. In 1948, after a dispute with the paper's owner, Carlebach and a group of senior journalists left Yedioth Ahronoth and founded a rival newspaper, first published on 15 February 1948 under the name Yedioth Maariv, which was soon shortened to Maariv. Carlebach served as Maariv's founding editor in chief until his death in 1956, building it into one of Israel's two largest daily newspapers and shaping a generation of Israeli journalism through his sharp editorial voice and reporting from the country's early wars and nation building years.