Jeff Goldberg is not the most influential or important Jewish Journalist. Brooks, Broder, Krugman, Krauthammer, David Remnick, Sy Hersh, Matt Drudge are all infinitely more significant. Goldberg is not well-known at all. I can come up with more.
I disagree with my friend. Krauthammer is yesterday's papers, and weird energy. (Goldberg is lots more fun.) Matt Drudge is half-Catholic and is not influential on religious matters, though yes, a big Israel supporter. Remnick writes for a general audience and does not plunge into Jewish subjects.
I must confess that Luban and I share a project. Last week I ran into him at the Mats Gilbert event in New York and we had a beer. (Let me be on record now: this kid is the future.) We both agreed then that we want to build a statue to Jeffrey Goldberg as the most important Jewish journalist because a, we believe it is a true fact, and b, it is important to show Goldberg in full regalia and on his horse in order to demonstrate the error of Goldberg's definition of Jewish identity, going forward.
Just to throw another hunk of clay on the statue right now, I would note that in his book Prisoners, Goldberg says of his own journalism in the 90s: "I believed a red river of anti-Semitism ran under the surface of America and I wanted to discover its source."
To all readers: Does this in any way describe your experience of America?
Luban writes, perceptively:
I'd also say that he's the most important Jewish journalist in that
he's the the most important one writing about Jewish/Israeli issues who
gets taken seriously by the mainstream Jewish community. so, e.g.,
maybe Paul Krugman is Jewish and more important, but he doesn't write about these issues. Maybe Bill Kristol is more influential, but the mainstream distrusts him. Maybe Tom Friedman
is more widely read, but it seems like he doesn't get taken that
seriously anymore. Whereas a lot of right-thinking people still take
their cues on Israel from Jeffrey Goldberg.
