Michael Goldfarb (born 20 September 1950, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American author, journalist and broadcaster based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

since 1985. In the United States he is best known for his work for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

from 1990 to 2005.

Early life and career

Michael Goldfarb was born in

and grew up in suburban

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Upon graduating from

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its ...

, he returned to New York to work as an actor. Under the name Michael Govan he appeared in productions at

Long Wharf Theatre Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared. Fou ...

and

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

. In 1984-85 he was a founding member of the Pearl Theatre Company in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Journalism

In November 1985, Goldfarb moved to London to pursue a career in journalism. He has reported from 25 countries on five continents. He reported on the arts for British and American newspapers, particularly ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

''. He became a critic for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

and this work led him into broadcast journalism with

(NPR). From 1990 to 1998, Goldfarb worked for NPR and from 1996 to 1998 he was its London Bureau Chief. He covered

British politics The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, is the ...

, the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...

and the five-year-long peace process in Northern Ireland. He also reported from Bosnia and Iraq. Throughout this period he worked with the ''BBC'' and in 1994 won British radio's highest honor, the

Sony Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

, for his essays on the American Midwest, titled ''Homeward Bound''. In 1999 he was a fellow at the

Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center or ...

at Harvard University's

Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

. In 2000 he joined the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

NPR affiliate

WBUR WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed progra ...

, as Senior Correspondent for the documentary series "Inside Out". Goldfarb's programs won numerous awards including the DuPont-Columbia award for ''Surviving Torture: Inside Out''; the

RTNDA The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

Edward R. Murrow Award for ''Ahmad's War: Inside Out''; and the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

's Lowell Thomas Award for ''British Jihad: Inside Out''. However, in 2005 he was suddenly made redundant and forced to return to freelance work. In 2016, he launched the FRDH podcast. He frames his storytelling through the idea that journalism is the First Rough Draft of History and draws on the history he has reported and lived and written about. He continues to make documentaries for

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, Radio 4, the

World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

and Radio 5 and is a regular panelist on the BBC News programme ''

Dateline London ''Dateline London'' is a weekly BBC News discussion programme. A panel of four leading journalists, lecturers, and foreign correspondents discussed top news stories from an international perspective. The last episode made was on the 15th Octobe ...

''. He writes op-eds for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and contributes occasionally to ''The Guardian''.

Books

While covering the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

as an unembedded reporter in

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...

, Goldfarb worked closely with the Iraqi newspaper editor

Ahmad Shawkat Ahmad Shawkat ( ar, أحمد شوكت) was an Iraqi journalist shot to death outside his media office in Mosul, on 28 October 2003, following a series of death threats. Shawkat was regarded as an opponent by the Saddam Hussein regime, and ha ...

. Following Shawkat's assassination in October 2003, Goldfarb wrote the story of his friend's life, which was published in 2005. ''Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq'' was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2005. In 2009, Goldfarb published his next book: ''Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews From the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance''. It is a popular history of how Jews and European society were changed by the opening of the ghettos during the era of

Jewish emancipation Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It in ...

, which began during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

.ReformJudaism.org: Book Review: Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance
Retrieved 2021-11-02

Works

*''Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq'' New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006. , *''Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews From the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. ,

References

External links

FRDH Podcast website

The Jewish Chronicle 27 May 2009: Interview with Michael Goldfarb
Relinked 2021-11-02

Retrieved 2018-15-05
BBC Radio 4 Archive, Sat 24 Mar 2018: The King and Kennedy Assassinations: If the Dead Could Speak
Relinked 2021-11-02 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldfarb, Michael 1950 births American male journalists Antioch College alumni Jewish American writers Harvard Kennedy School people Living people Journalists from New York City 21st-century American Jews