About The Times of Israel

The Times of Israel

The Times of Israel is a Jerusalem-based, multi-language online newspaper launched in February 2012. It publishes in English, in Hebrew through its edition Zman Yisrael, and in Arabic, French and Persian, and it describes its mission as documenting developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world. Founded by journalist David Horovitz together with American investor Seth Klarman, it has grown from a start-up English-language site into what is described as the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It is digital-only, independent of any print newspaper, and headquartered in Jerusalem in the Jerusalem District.

Founding and founders

The Times of Israel was launched in February 2012 by two co-founders with complementary backgrounds. David Horovitz, the founding editor, is a British-born Israeli journalist who had previously been editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and of The Jerusalem Report, and who had covered the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process for decades. Seth Klarman is an American billionaire investor, founder of the Baupost Group and chairman of The David Project, who serves as chairman of the website. The pairing mattered: Horovitz supplied editorial credibility and a newsroom network, while Klarman supplied the capital backing for a free, advertising-supported site that would need time to build an audience. The publication states that it has no partisan political affiliation and seeks to present the news fair-mindedly, offering a wide range of analysis and opinion alongside reporting.

Early newsroom and staffing

Several of the site's early editors came from the English edition of Haaretz. Joshua Davidovich and Raphael Ahren joined as news editors, and Haaretz's Arab affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff joined as Middle East analyst; Issacharoff later became widely known as a co-creator of the television series Fauda. Amanda Borschel-Dan, formerly magazine editor of The Jerusalem Post, became a deputy editor responsible for the Jewish world and archaeology coverage and host of the paper's weekly podcast. That recruitment pattern — experienced English-language journalists already working in Israel — allowed a new outlet to publish at a professional standard from its first years rather than building expertise slowly. The newsroom is based in Jerusalem, with liaison journalists stationed in New York City reflecting where a large share of its readership lives.

Language editions

Expansion into other languages began two years after launch. The Arabic edition, edited by Suha Halifa, launched on 4 February 2014. The French edition, edited by Stephanie Bitan, followed on 25 February 2014. The Persian edition, edited by Avi Davidi, launched on 7 October 2015. A Chinese edition was also launched in this period, on 28 May 2014, edited by Jingjing Li, though the site's enduring language lineup is English, Hebrew, Arabic, French and Persian. The Arabic and French editions combine translations of English content with original material written in those languages, and each also hosts a blog platform. The Hebrew edition arrived later as a full website of its own: Zman Yisrael launched in February 2019, with Biranit Goren appointed editor-in-chief and its editorial team based in Tel Aviv. The multi-language structure is central to the outlet's identity: the same Jerusalem newsroom conversation is carried, in adapted form, to diaspora Jews, to Arabic readers, to French readers and to Persian readers.

The blog platform

Alongside its reported news, The Times of Israel hosts a multi-author blog platform, one of its most distinctive features. The platform is deliberately open: community contributors, public figures, religious leaders and ordinary readers publish alongside one another, clearly separated from the staff news report. By 2021 the paper's press materials counted about 9,000 active bloggers on the platform. In announcing the Arabic edition, Horovitz suggested the site may have created the first Arabic blog platform drawing articles from across the spectrum of opinion, inviting readers to join what he called a marketplace of ideas. To limit anonymous abuse, comments on news articles and features across the site's editions can only be posted by readers identified through their Facebook profiles or an equivalent. The blogs make the site function partly as a communal town square for the Jewish world, not only as a newspaper.

Local partners

Since 2016, The Times of Israel has also hosted the websites of Jewish newspapers in several other countries, known as its local partners. In March 2016 it began hosting New York's The Jewish Week. The network grew to include Britain's Jewish News, the New Jersey Jewish Standard, The Atlanta Jewish Times and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, and in October 2019 The Australian Jewish News became the seventh local partner. For the partner papers, hosting on the Times of Israel platform provides modern digital infrastructure and exposure to a large international audience. For The Times of Israel, the partnerships embed it in local Jewish journalism across the United States, Britain and Australia, reinforcing its claim to cover the Jewish world and not only Israel.

Audience growth

The site's reported audience grew quickly. In February 2014, two years after launch, The Times of Israel claimed a readership of two million. In 2017, readership was reported at 3.5 million unique monthly users. By 2021, according to its press kit, the paper averaged over nine million unique users each month and over 35 million monthly page views. Its 2025 press kit listed an audience of eight million unique monthly users, comprising 25 million monthly visits and 75 million monthly page views. Website ranking company Similarweb listed the site's traffic as 45 million visits in June 2025, with more than half of that traffic originating in the United States. Those figures explain the site's business and editorial shape: a Jerusalem newsroom whose largest single audience is American, writing first in English about Israel and Jewish affairs.

Coverage and editorial approach

Coverage spans Israeli politics and government, diplomacy, security and military affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, regional Middle East developments, Jewish communities and institutions worldwide, religion, archaeology and history, business and technology, culture and lifestyle. News reports and analysis from staff journalists form the core, opinion pieces and the blog platform provide argument and debate, and features and podcasts extend the offering beyond text news. The site presents itself as independent and non-partisan, and its model depends on that positioning: readers in many countries and political camps use it as a common source on Israel. Its reporting is free to read, which distinguishes it from paywalled competitors and supports its scale in search and social distribution.

Security incident

The site's prominence has made it a target. On 2 November 2017, hackers in Turkey took down The Times of Israel website for three hours, replacing the homepage with anti-Israel propaganda. Responding to the attack, Horovitz said the site constantly works to improve security and is subjected to relentless attacks by hackers, and he criticised the attempt to prevent people from reading responsible, independent journalism on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. The incident is recorded here because it illustrates a practical reality of digital-only publishing from Jerusalem: a news site with no print edition lives or dies by the availability and integrity of its website, so attacks on the site are attacks on the publication itself.

Significance

The Times of Israel demonstrated that a digital-only, English-first newsroom founded in 2012 could become the largest Jewish and Israeli news source by audience without a newspaper, a broadcast licence or a paywall behind it. Its combination — staff reporting from Jerusalem, editions in five languages, an open blog platform with thousands of contributors, hosted partner newspapers on three continents, and a readership measured in millions of monthly users, more than half of it at times in the United States — has no exact parallel among Israeli outlets. Based in Jerusalem and edited by its founding editor David Horovitz under chairman Seth Klarman, it remains a central reference for how Israel and Jewish affairs are reported to the world in English.

The publication's structure also reflects a deliberate division between news and voice. Staff reporting is presented as the paper of record for its subject, while the blog platform and opinion pages carry argument explicitly labelled as such, and the hosted local partners publish under their own historic newspaper names rather than under the Times of Israel brand. That separation has allowed one Jerusalem website to serve simultaneously as a news source, a debate forum and a publishing platform for Jewish newspapers in other countries, without confusing readers about which of those roles any given article occupies.