About Zman Yisrael

Zman Yisrael

Zman Yisrael is a Hebrew-language online newspaper in Israel, published at zman.co.il as the Hebrew edition and sister site of The Times of Israel. Where the original Times of Israel site reports in English for an international audience interested in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, Zman Yisrael publishes that same broad field of reporting in Hebrew for a domestic Israeli audience. It is an online-only publication, and its headquarters are listed in Jerusalem, in the Jerusalem District. It is not a separate newspaper that happens to share a subject with The Times of Israel, nor simply a translation page attached to another site. It was created by The Times of Israel itself, launched with its own editor-in-chief and editorial team, and is routinely described by its parent as The Times of Israel's Hebrew-language sister publication. Stories reported first by Zman Yisrael are regularly picked up and credited by the English site, making it the domestic-facing half of a single bilingual news operation.

Launch in 2019

Zman Yisrael was launched on 1 May 2019. The Times of Israel marked the occasion that day with an article by its founding editor David Horovitz titled “Clear-headed journalism, this time in Hebrew: Introducing Zman Yisrael.” The headline captured the logic of the launch: the kind of journalism the group had built its reputation on in English was now, for the first time, being offered in Hebrew. The venture had already attracted attention earlier in 2019, with the Hebrew media-watch publication The Seventh Eye reporting in February 2019 on a new entrant in Hebrew online journalism under the Zman Yisrael name.

By 2019 The Times of Israel was seven years old and well established in English, with editions already operating in other languages. Hebrew, the main language of everyday life and public debate inside Israel itself, was the conspicuous gap. Launching Zman Yisrael closed it, allowing the organisation to speak directly, in their own language, to readers living with the consequences of the politics, security decisions and court rulings it covered.

Origins in The Times of Israel

Zman Yisrael's parent, The Times of Israel, was launched in February 2012 as an Israeli multi-language online newspaper based in Jerusalem, stating that it documents developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also its founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. Klarman is the founder of the Baupost Group, was chairman of The David Project, and serves as chairman of the website. The record for Zman Yisrael itself lists David Horovitz as its founder, reflecting his central role in creating both publications.

Horovitz brought long experience of English-language journalism in Jerusalem to the venture. Born in London, he immigrated to Israel in 1983 and had previously been editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and of The Jerusalem Report, where he was also publisher. That background helps explain the model Zman Yisrael inherited: a digital-first newsroom in Israel, led by professional editors, publishing news reports and analysis rather than relying on a legacy print operation.

Jerusalem base and editorial team

Zman Yisrael's headquarters are given as Jerusalem, the same city that is home to The Times of Israel. At the same time, reporting on its launch noted that Zman Yisrael's editorial team is based in Tel Aviv, Israel's media and commercial centre. That combination suits a national online newspaper: a formal base in the capital, where government, the Knesset and the courts shape much of the news agenda, and a working editorial team in the city where much of the country's publishing industry is concentrated. As an online newspaper, Zman Yisrael is organised around continuous digital publishing on zman.co.il rather than a daily print cycle, and its stories form part of the wider group's coverage of breaking developments in Israel and the region.

Leadership and editorship

Zman Yisrael was launched under editor-in-chief Biranit Goren, who was appointed to lead the Hebrew edition in 2019 and continues to be identified by The Times of Israel as the editor of Zman Yisrael, its Hebrew-language sister publication. Goren's role is visible beyond the Hebrew site: she has joined The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing podcast as a guest alongside senior analysts to explain major domestic stories, such as hearings at the High Court of Justice, to the English-language audience. That crossover shows how the Hebrew editorship is integrated into the wider group rather than isolated from it.

Above the individual editions sits the founding leadership of the parent organisation. David Horovitz introduced the Hebrew site personally in May 2019 and remains the editorial figure most closely associated with the group's direction. Seth Klarman, co-founder and chairman of The Times of Israel, provides the backing behind the operation; coverage of Zman Yisrael's entry into Hebrew online journalism in 2019 specifically noted the new site's joint ownership involving Klarman.

Relationship between the Hebrew and English editions

The two sites are sister publications within one news organisation. The English site is the original, launched in 2012, and describes Zman Yisrael consistently as its Hebrew sister site. The Hebrew site carries the group's reporting into Israel's domestic conversation, while the English site carries reporting from Israel to the world, and work flows in both directions. When Zman Yisrael reports a story, The Times of Israel frequently reports it onward in English with explicit credit.

Two examples show the pattern. In April 2022, politician Idit Silman spoke exclusively to Zman Yisrael, denying reports that she had been promised future governmental positions in exchange for her defection from the governing coalition, and The Times of Israel reported that interview as an exclusive for its sister site. In January 2024, The Times of Israel reported, crediting Zman Yisrael, that Israeli officials had held clandestine talks with Congo and several other countries about potentially accepting immigrants from Gaza — a report senior officials publicly pushed back against the following day. In both cases the original journalism was done in Hebrew, for a Hebrew audience, then amplified internationally in English.

Content and coverage

Zman Yisrael publishes the Times of Israel's reporting on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world in Hebrew. In practice that means coverage centred on Israeli politics and government, security and military affairs, diplomacy, the courts and legal affairs, and wider regional developments affecting Israel, alongside coverage of Jewish life. Its contributors include specialist voices; The Times of Israel identifies Yuval Yoaz as the legal analyst at Zman Yisrael, a practising lawyer specialising in public, constitutional and media law.

The content mixes original Hebrew reporting with the shared journalism of the wider newsroom, following the pattern of the group's other language editions, which combine translations of material from the main site with original material in their own language. For Zman Yisrael, original domestic reporting is central: exclusives with Israeli politicians, reporting on diplomatic contacts and analysis of court and coalition politics are aimed first at readers inside Israel, even when the same stories later travel into English.

A domestic audience versus an international audience

The clearest distinction between the sister sites is audience. The Times of Israel in English is an international publication — it has been described as the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size, and much of its readership is outside Israel. Its task is to explain Israel to the world. Zman Yisrael performs the complementary task inside the country. Publishing in Hebrew, it addresses readers for whom Israeli politics, security and society are not foreign news but daily life, and who encounter its reporting alongside the rest of Israel's competitive Hebrew media. A Hebrew reader does not need Israel explained from first principles, but does need fast, reliable reporting on coalition negotiations, court petitions, military developments and policy decisions. Zman Yisrael supplies that within the editorial framework its parent built, giving domestic audiences the same newsroom's work in their own language.

Editorial approach and positioning

The Times of Israel states that it is intended to be independent, without political leanings, and Horovitz said at its founding in 2012: “We are independent; we're not attached or affiliated with any political party.” Zman Yisrael was launched in that same spirit, under the banner of clear-headed journalism in Hebrew, and inherits the group's stated commitment to fair-minded reporting and a wide range of analysis and opinion. External descriptions place both in the centre: The Times of Israel is considered centrist by various sources, and the French outlet Courrier International has described Zman Yisrael, the Hebrew sister website of The Times of Israel, as centrist as well.

The parent site also operates a multi-author blog platform and restricts comments on news articles and features to readers identified through their Facebook profiles or equivalent, a policy introduced to avoid anonymous commenting that can drag discussion down. For Zman Yisrael, the practical meaning of this approach is a Hebrew news source that aims to report contested domestic stories — governments, courts, wars and diplomacy — in a measured, attributed way, rather than as a partisan or campaigning publication.

Place in the wider Times of Israel family

Zman Yisrael is one edition within a deliberately multi-language operation. The Times of Israel launched its Arabic edition, edited by Suha Halifa, on 4 February 2014, and its French edition, edited by Stephanie Bitan, on 25 February 2014, followed by its Persian edition, edited by Avi Davidi, on 7 October 2015. The Hebrew site, launched in 2019, came later than those international-facing editions: the organisation first built audiences abroad, then completed the set by publishing at home in Hebrew. The group has since focused its language publishing on its English content, its French site and Zman Yisrael, which it has described as its thriving Hebrew sister site.

Within that family, Zman Yisrael holds a special status. The other editions primarily present an Israeli story to readers abroad or in diaspora communities, whereas Zman Yisrael reports Israel to Israelis and frequently originates the stories the rest of the group then carries. Its editor appears in the parent site's podcasts, its legal analyst is quoted in English coverage, and its exclusives become international news. Since 1 May 2019, that has been its contribution: it took a model of clear-headed, independent reporting proven in English since 2012 and gave it a Hebrew voice under Biranit Goren — Israel reporting on itself, in its own language, for its own readers.