Jacobo Timerman (6 January 1923 – 11 November 1999), was a Soviet-born Argentine publisher, journalist, and author, who is most noted for his confronting and reporting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War during a period of widespread repression in which an estimated 30,000 political prisoners were disappeared. He was persecuted, tortured and imprisoned by the Argentine junta in the late 1970s and was exiled in 1979 with his wife to Israel. He was widely honored for his work as a journalist and publisher.
In Israel, Timerman wrote and published his most well-known book, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (1981), a memoir of his prison experience that added to his international reputation. A longtime Zionist, he also published The Longest War, a strongly critical book about Israel's 1982 Lebanon War.
Timerman returned to Argentina in 1984, and testified to the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. He continued to write, publishing books in 1987 about Chile under the Augusto Pinochet regime and in 1990 about Cuba under Fidel Castro.
Early life
Timerman was born in Bar, Ukraine, to Jewish parents Eve Berman and Nathan Timerman. To escape the persecution of Jews and pogroms there, the family emigrated to Argentina in 1928, when he was five years old and his brother Joseph was seven. The family lived in the Jewish area of Buenos Aires, restricted by their poverty to occupying a single room. Timerman took a job at age 12 after the death of his father. While young, Timerman lost an eye due to infection.
Timerman became a Zionist as a young man. He met his future wife, Risha Mindlin, at a Zionist conference in Mendoza. (Her surname has also been reported as Midlin.) They married on 20 May 1950 in a simple ceremony at the Mindlin house.
Career
Journalist and publisher
Timerman gained work as a journalist and rose in his profession, reporting for various publications including the Agence France-Presse, Mail, What, News Charts, New Zion, and Commentary. He became fluent in English as well as Spanish. He gained experience and reported on Argentine and South American politics.
In 1962, Timerman founded Primera Plana, an Argentine news-weekly often compared to the American publication, Time magazine. In 1964 Timerman resigned as editor of Primera Plana, amid rumors of official threats due to his "line of opposition to the government". The magazine announced Timerman's resignation the week after it had reported on government threats to sanction uncooperative publications.
In 1965, he founded another news weekly titled Confirmado (The Journal).
The Armed Forces seized power in 1966, overthrowing president Arturo Illia. General Juan Carlos Onganía was installed as president, initiating a repressive and unpopular regime. His administration was characterized by its violent repression of Argentina's universities and intellectuals, and for its policy of establishing strict and conservative Catholic morals. Onganía suspended publication of Primera Plana in 1969. The next year it resumed publication but never regained its previous status. From his exile in Spain, former president Juan Perón bought Timerman's newspaper in 1970, planning to control it and part of the political discussion in the country.
Timerman founded La Opinión in 1971, which many considered "the greatest of his career. With it, Timerman began to cover topics in more depth and journalists signed their articles, so their work could be identified. His model was the French newspaper, Le Monde.
On 27 July 1972, the 20th anniversary of Eva Perón's death, terrorists set off 20 bombs in Argentina, most located in banks. But Timerman was one of numerous people targeted in the 20 attempted bombings.
Perón returned to Argentina from Spain in 1973 after his candidate Héctor Cámpora of the Justicialist Party was elected as president. Perón was widely understood to be the real power in the country, and the next year was elected as president after Campora stepped aside for him. His third wife, Isabel Perón, was elected as his vice-president. His death in 1974 raised uncertainty and political tensions. Isabel Perón succeeded him, becoming the first woman president in the Western Hemisphere. During the political unrest that year, Timerman received bomb threats by the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (also called the Triple A).