HaOlam HaZeh

HaOlam HaZeh was an Israeli weekly magazine covering news, investigations, culture, entertainment, and gossip. Published from 1937 to 1993, it became one of the most distinctive and influential voices in Israel's public sphere. At different points in its history, it sought not merely to report events but to expose what institutions preferred to conceal, widen the boundaries of public discussion, and bring neglected communities and subjects into view.

From “Nine in the Evening” to an Independent Voice

The magazine was founded in 1937 by journalist Uri Kesari under the name Tesha BaErev, “Nine in the Evening.” It adopted the name HaOlam HaZeh in 1946. Under Kesari, it concentrated on culture, art, fashion, social life, and entertainment, drawing on the influence of French culture. Its early slogan—“The stage and life, the pulse of the times, humor and satire, entertainment and bread”—expressed its attempt to connect popular culture with everyday life and current affairs.

In 1950, Uri Avnery and Shalom Cohen acquired the magazine, together with Nahum Eitan, who sold his share later in the decade. Under their editorship, HaOlam HaZeh gained a large readership and a clear institutional identity. Its motto, “Without fear, without prejudice,” captured its self-image as a campaigning and investigative publication, even when its methods and style provoked strong reactions.

Investigative Journalism Against Established Power

During the Avnery-Cohen years, the magazine challenged political, security, and social power centers. It attacked Mapai's dominance and David Ben-Gurion's leadership, criticized military censorship and the security services, and pursued stories that mainstream newspapers were reluctant to publish. Government and established journalism sometimes avoided using its name, referring to it simply as “the particular weekly.”

HaOlam HaZeh covered the 1951 seamen's strike extensively and supported the strikers. In the early 1950s it was among the first Israeli publications to raise the discrimination and marginalization experienced by Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries, in a series of articles titled “They Are Doing It to the Blacks.” During the Kasztner trial in 1954, it provided a platform for attorney Shmuel Tamir and for sharp criticism of the country's political leadership. In 1955, it ran a campaign against Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, calling the city “Hushistan” in a series of reports.

In 1964, the magazine circumvented censorship surrounding the Lavon Affair through a supposedly fictional thriller, “The Alexis Affair,” whose characters and events closely echoed the real case. It joined Pinhas Lavon's political struggle and continued to challenge the balance of power within Israel's security and political establishment. In 1967, it published a series by Shalom Cohen advancing allegations that Yemenite children had been sold to America. The subject later became a major part of Israel's public and historical debate.

In the early 1970s, the magazine exclusively reported what it called the “Elisheva Affair,” involving Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. Such stories combined political exposure with sensational presentation, examining the relationship between the private conduct of powerful figures and their public responsibilities.

National Questions, Rights, and Identity

HaOlam HaZeh was among the earliest Israeli voices to call for Palestinian rights, equality for Arab citizens, and regional coexistence. It documented the Qibya operation and the Kafr Qasim affair, and devoted substantial space to criticism of military rule, the expropriation of Arab land, and policies that excluded minorities from Israel's public conversation.

On the fifth day of the Six-Day War, the magazine published a short-lived daily newspaper, Daf. Its first issue publicly called for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, shortly after those territories had been occupied by Israel. In 1982, Uri Avnery, Sarit Yishai, and photographer Anat Saragosti traveled to besieged Beirut and met Yasser Arafat. It was the first meeting between Israelis and Arafat.

The magazine also pushed the boundaries of public knowledge on security matters. In 1984, it was the first to publish a photograph showing one of the Bus 300 hijackers alive after being captured. Taken by staff photographer Anat Saragosti, the image contradicted the claim that all the hijackers had died during the operation and had major public and legal significance.

Style, Language, and a New Journalistic Culture

HaOlam HaZeh's importance lay not only in what it published but in how it presented the news. Beginning in 1959, it used a two-cover format: the front cover generally focused on political news and investigations, while the back cover featured gossip, sex, and sensational stories. The format helped create a broad readership and made the magazine a commercial and cultural phenomenon, although it also reinforced its reputation as a tabloid and a provocative publication.

At its peak in the mid-1960s, circulation exceeded 25,000 copies a week, making it Israel's second-largest weekly. It was read in major cities, among politicians and civil servants, within social elites, and even in kibbutzim. Political and institutional sources frequently leaked information to the magazine when editors and reporters at mainstream papers could not or would not publish it. In this way, HaOlam HaZeh compelled the censor, security agencies, and established press to reconsider the limits of sensitive information and the public's right to know.

Its influence extended to Hebrew journalism and language. Avnery adapted elements of the American magazine Time, including regular sections, a personal editor's letter, and an “Person of the Year” feature. HaOlam HaZeh helped popularize Hebrew coinages such as iltur (“improvisation”), mahze­mer (“musical”), yoman (“daily newspaper”), halalit (“spacecraft”), and knesset member in its abbreviated form, MK. Its gossip column, “Rachel the Gossip,” later became a model for gossip columns throughout Israeli journalism.

A Training Ground for Journalists and Artists

The magazine was also a training ground for journalists, satirists, photographers, and illustrators. Its working method combined hiring very young reporters with intensive mentoring in writing and investigative reporting. Among those who began or developed their careers there were Uri Dan, Sylvie Keshet, Aharon Bachar, Natan Zahavi, Uri Aloni, Menachem Shizaf, Anat Saragosti, and Naim Giladi, who edited the magazine's Arabic edition.

In the early 1970s, the “Zuaretz group”—B. Michael, Hanoch Marmari, Kobi Niv, Ephraim Sidon, and Eli Tavor—created the satirical section Zoo Haaretz. The magazine also connected journalism with the visual arts. Samuel Bak illustrated Avnery's principal articles, while Dudu Geva and Dick Kodor designed and illustrated sections that became part of Israel's visual culture.

Politics, Decline, and the Archive

In response to the enactment of Israel's defamation law, Avnery founded the political list HaOlam HaZeh–Koah Hadash before the 1965 Knesset election. It won one seat, and in 1969 won two, bringing Shalom Cohen into the Knesset. The magazine's transformation into a political platform demonstrated that HaOlam HaZeh was more than a publication: it was a public force seeking to reshape Israel's agenda.

Circulation began to decline in the late 1960s as daily newspapers expanded and television became a stronger competitor. By the late 1980s, the magazine faced financial crisis. Businessman Arie Ganger entered the partnership and later acquired Avnery's share; Rafi Ginat became editor in 1990. Circulation rose briefly, but the magazine's political direction changed and its journalism became more sensational. In the early 1990s it passed to Monitin Communications, was edited by Rino Tzror, became a weekly supplement to Globes, and closed permanently in 1993.

The magazine's material legacy is preserved in the archives of Yedioth Ahronoth, Beit Ariela, and the National Library of Israel. The collections include hundreds of thousands of photographs and negatives. After Avnery's death in 2018, more than 2,000 issues were digitized and placed online in searchable form, allowing researchers and the public to follow Israel's history through the magazine's covers, investigations, images, and language.

Why HaOlam HaZeh Belongs in Moreshet

HaOlam HaZeh merits inclusion in Moreshet because it was one of the communications institutions that shaped public memory and the culture of debate in Israel. It documented social struggles, investigated government affairs, raised questions of equality and minority rights, and gave early Israeli expression to arguments for Palestinian statehood and regional dialogue. At the same time, it transformed journalistic language, magazine design, investigative practice, and the professional lives of writers and artists who went on to influence Israeli culture.

The magazine was complex and often deliberately provocative, combining serious investigation with sensationalism. That tension makes it an especially valuable historical document: it challenged official authority, reflected street culture, gave space to marginalized voices, and expanded the boundaries of publication. Preserving its story on Moreshet.com allows future generations to encounter not only a closed weekly magazine, but also a central laboratory in which Israeli journalism, language, and public argument took shape.