Jeffrey Mark Goldberg (born September 22, 1965) is an American journalist and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. During his nine years at The Atlantic prior to becoming editor, Goldberg became known for his coverage of foreign affairs. Goldberg joined Washington Week (rebranded as Washington Week with The Atlantic) as moderator in August 2023.
Early life and education
Goldberg is Jewish and was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Ellen and Daniel Goldberg. Goldberg has described his parents as "very left-wing." His grandfather was from the shtetl of Leova, Moldova. He grew up in suburban Malverne on Long Island, a predominately Catholic neighborhood which he once described as “a wasteland of Irish pogromists." Retroactively, when describing his first trip to Israel as a teen, Goldberg recalled the sense of empowerment he felt Israel embodied.
Goldberg 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 Israel Defense Forces during the First Intifada as a prison guard at Ktzi'ot Prison, a prison camp set up to hold arrested Palestinian participants in the uprising. There he met Rafiq Hijazi, a Palestine Liberation Organization leader, college math teacher, and devout Muslim from a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, whom Goldberg described as "the only Palestinian I could find in Ketziot who understood the moral justification for Zionism".
Goldberg lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Pamela (née Ress) Reeves, and their three children.
Career
Goldberg returned to the United States and began his career as a reporter at The Washington Post, where he worked the police beat. While in Israel, he worked as a columnist for The Jerusalem Post. Upon his return to the US, he 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.
In 2000, Goldberg joined The New Yorker.
In 2007, he was hired by David G. Bradley to write for The Atlantic. Bradley had tried for nearly two years to convince Goldberg to work for The Atlantic, and was finally successful after renting ponies for Goldberg's children.
In 2011, Goldberg joined Bloomberg View as a columnist. Goldberg left Bloomberg in 2014.
Goldberg joined The Atlantic and became editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in 2016. Goldberg wrote principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa.
In 2019, Goldberg delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of the Johns Hopkins University.
Orientation and reception
Michael Massing, an editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, called Goldberg "the most influential journalist/blogger on matters related to Israel," and David Rothkopf, former editor and CEO of the FP Group, called him "one of the most incisive, respected foreign policy journalists around." He has been described by critics as a liberal, a Zionist and a critic of Israel. The New York Times reported that he "shaped" The Atlantics endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, only the third endorsement in the magazine's 160-year history.
Notable articles
"The Great Terror," The New Yorker, 2002
In "The Great Terror", Goldberg investigates the nature of the Iraqi Army's chemical attack on the Kurds in Halabja in 1988. The article also included allegations of ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
In a March 2002 CNN interview, former CIA director, James Woolsey said, "I think Jeff Goldberg's piece is quite remarkable, and he and The New Yorker deserve a lot of credit for it."
"In the Party of God," The New Yorker, 2002
In October 2002, Goldberg wrote a two-part examination of Hezbollah, "In the Party of God." Part I recounts his time in the village of Ras al-Ein, located in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, meeting with Hezbollah officials, including Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah's former spiritual leader, and Hussayn al-Mussawi, founder of the now-defunct pro-Iranian Islamist militia Islamic Amal in 1982. Part II examines Hezbollah's activities in South America, specifically in the area known as the Triple Frontier, a tri-border area along the junction of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil."
In 2003, "In the Party of God" won the National Magazine Award for reporting.