The Times of Israel, the hugely successful, English-language, online newspaper based in Jerusalem has turned a new leaf: as of this week, it can also be read in Arabic.
The upstart media site was founded in 2012 by Boston-based investor Seth Klarman and Editor-in-Chief David Horowitz, who was previously editor of the Jerusalem Post.
The Times of Israel’s Arabic-language edition will, for now, be run by an editor and two journalists translating “the best of our material in English”, Mr Horowitz said, but the aim is eventually to hire native-speaking journalists.
“The idea has always been bubbling in my mind,” he added. The initiative was in part inspired by the website’s growing readership in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Egypt and the Palestinian territories.
Mr Horowitz said that until now, “there has been a real dearth of material coming out from Israel in Arabic. In Hebrew, of course, there isn’t any shortage of reporting. You can like it or not. The way we see it, an Arabic edition will be part of our initial goal: to have people understand what is going in Israel and the region and the Jewish world."
