Jeffrey Goldberg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jeffrey Goldberg
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Goldberg in 2013
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| Born |
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg
1965 (age 59–60) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Citizenship |
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| Education | University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation |
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| Title | Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic |
| Spouse(s) |
Pamela Ress Reeves
(m. 1993) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | National Magazine Award, Overseas Press Club's Joe & Laurie Dine Award |
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg, born in 1965, is an American journalist. He is currently the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. Before becoming editor, he was well-known for his reporting on international events. Since August 2023, he has also hosted the PBS show Washington Week, which is now called Washington Week with The Atlantic. He continues to be the editor of The Atlantic at the same time.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Malverne, a town on Long Island. He went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Goldberg later left college and worked for a while at The Washington Post. He then moved to Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces. During this time, he worked as a prison guard at Ktzi'ot Prison. There, he met a Palestinian leader named Rafiq Hijazi. Goldberg later said that Rafiq was the only Palestinian he met there who understood why Israel was founded.
Many years after his first visit to Israel as a teenager, Goldberg became a citizen of both the United States and Israel. He felt that Israel represented strength. However, in 2013, he decided to give up his Israeli citizenship. He explained that if Israel became too much like a religious, controlling state, he wouldn't be able to support it as a liberal American Jew.
Career as a Journalist
Goldberg returned to the United States and started his career as a reporter at The Washington Post. He covered police news. While he was in Israel, he wrote columns for The Jerusalem Post. Back in the U.S., he worked for several other publications, including The Forward, New York magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. In 2000, he joined The New Yorker magazine.
In 2003, one of his articles, "In the Party of God," won a National Magazine Award for its reporting.
In 2007, David G. Bradley hired Goldberg to write for The Atlantic. Bradley had tried for almost two years to get him to join. He finally succeeded after renting ponies for Goldberg's children!
During his time at The Atlantic, Goldberg has interviewed many important people. These include Barack Obama (five times), Fidel Castro, Hillary Clinton, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2011, Goldberg also became a columnist for Bloomberg View, but he left in 2014.
Goldberg became the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in 2016. He mostly writes about international news, especially focusing on the Middle East and Africa.
Reporting on President Trump
In September 2020, Goldberg published an article in The Atlantic titled "Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and 'Suckers'." In the article, Goldberg reported that in 2018, President Donald Trump allegedly canceled a visit to a cemetery in France. This cemetery holds the remains of U.S. service members killed in World War I. Trump was reported to have said privately, "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." He also allegedly called U.S. Marines who died in a battle "suckers."
This article became a very big story. Many people, including Joe Biden, criticized Trump for the alleged comments. The White House strongly denied the report. President Trump tweeted that The Atlantic was "dying" and made up a "fake story."
Other news organizations, like the Associated Press and The New York Times, later reported that they had also confirmed parts of Goldberg's story. However, several Trump officials who were present that day denied the comments. For example, the U.S. ambassador to France, Jamie McCourt, said Trump "NEVER denigrated any member of the U.S. military."
In October 2023, John Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff at the time of the alleged comments, told CNN that Goldberg's reporting was correct.
Government Chat Leak
In March 2025, Goldberg published another important article in The Atlantic. He reported that he had accidentally been included in a secret group chat on the Signal app. This chat included members of President Donald Trump's cabinet. The chat revealed secret military plans for U.S. attacks in Yemen.
Goldberg reported that Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, had added him to the chat by mistake. Other accounts in the chat appeared to belong to important government officials like Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A spokesperson for the United States National Security Council later confirmed Goldberg's report.
Views and Influence
In 2008, Goldberg wrote an article explaining why he had initially supported the Iraq War. He said he "didn't realize how incompetent the Bush administration could be."
Many people see Goldberg as a very important journalist. Michael Massing, an editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, called him "the most influential journalist/blogger on matters related to Israel." David Rothkopf, a former editor, called him "one of the most incisive, respected foreign policy journalists around."
Goldberg has been described as a liberal and a Zionist. He is also known for being a "frequent critic of Israel." The New York Times reported that he helped shape The Atlantic's decision to support Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election. This was only the third time in the magazine's 160-year history that it had endorsed a presidential candidate.
Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide
Goldberg wrote a book called Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide (published in 2006). The book describes his experiences working at the Ketziot military prison camp in Israel. It also tells the story of his conversations with Rafiq, the prisoner he later befriended in Washington, D.C.
The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times all named it one of the best books of 2006.
Critics praised the book for its honest and personal approach to understanding the conflict in the Middle East. One critic from The New York Times said it was a "genuinely admirable book" for its "bittersweet complexity." A review from CBS News called Goldberg's writing "exceptional: wise, unpretentious, and at times, unexpectedly funny."
Personal Life
Goldberg lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Pamela Ress Reeves. They have three children.
