Ari Rath Prize for Critical Journalism

Vienna Lectures in cooperation with Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue

Shortly after his 92nd birthday, journalist Ari Rath died on 13 January 2017 in his native city of Vienna. Rath was born in Vienna-Alsergrund in 1925. In 1938, he had to flee from the Nazis to Palestine. He regained Austrian citizenship in 2007, but he still referred to Israel as his home. He was also buried there.
From 1958 Rath was editor, and from 1975 editor-in-chief and publisher of the „Jerusalem Post“. He belonged to the generation of well-known politicians Yitzchak Rabin, Teddy Kollek and Shimon Peres and was an advisor to Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister from 1948. Rath has received numerous awards - including the German Federal Cross of Merit (2005), the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2011) and the Golden Decoration of Honour for Services to the State of Vienna (2015).
Even in old age, Rath campaigned with all his might against racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance in our society. Ari Rath appeared as one of the "Last Witnesses", the Burgtheater production by Doron Rabinovici and Matthias Hartmann, in which six Holocaust survivors spoke vividly about their experiences. Rath also always argued in favour of a peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
This prize was created in memory of Ari Rath.
The aim is to honour journalists who make an important socio-political contribution with their critical reporting on the topics of exile, flight and expulsion. The first award winner is Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, former editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper ’Der Standard’ and correspondent for the ’Süddeutsche Zeitung’ in Israel since 2017.