Honored Persons

 

Ari Rath

Ari Rath (* on January 6, 1925 in Vienna, + on January 13, 2017, also in Vienna) was an Israeli journalist and peace activist. For many years (from 1975 to 1989) he was editor-in-chief and publisher of the newspaper "Jerusalem Post". Ari Rath spent his childhood in Vienna. His mother, Laura Rath, suffered from Morbus Basedow and committed suicide in 1929. His father Josef Rath was deported to the Dachau concentration camp in 1938 by the Nazis. Ari Rath managed to flee to Trieste and from there to Haifa. He found a new home in the Kibbutz Chamadiya. In 1946, Rath was sent to the United States to recruit young Jews for the kibbutz movement. In New York he found his father, who had managed to emigrate, as well as his stepmother, brother and half-sister. Ari Rath belonged to the founding generation of Israel. During his lifetime, he was very close to David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the new state. In September 1958, Rath was recruited by the Jerusalem Post. He quickly made a name for himself as a journalist and was involved in some important world political events, often as the only press representative, for example, during the first conversation between Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer in New York. The "Jerusalem Post" crowned Ari Rath as editor-in-chief and publisher until the newspaper was sold in 1989 and its profile was severely changed. Rath became involved as a lecturer and commentator on peace. Ari Rath died on January 13, 2017. He was buried near his brother in the cemetery of kibbutz Givat Hashlosha in Israel.