Dov Alfon (; born 1961) is an Israeli journalist and author residing in France. He was the chief editor of Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir, Israel's largest publishing house. From 2008 to 2011, he was editor in chief of ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'', an Israeli newspaper. He is currently the CEO of Storyvid.io, a non-profit cultural venture aiming to bridge between literature and new media. He was also the editor in chief of Alaxon, a Hebrew digital journal for Science and the Arts. On 16 September 2020, Dov Alfon was appointed editor-in-chief and head of editorial strategy of the French newspaper '' Libération''.

Biography

Dov Patrick Alfon was born in

Sousse Sousse, Sūsah , or Soussa (, ), is a city in Tunisia, capital of the Sousse Governorate. Located south of the capital Tunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants (2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which ...

1961. He grew up in Paris. He published his first short story at the age of nine in the comics weekly Spirou while attending the College Henry IV in the fifth arrondissement. On his 11th birthday, the family immigrated to Israel. They settled in Ashdod, where he studied at the Rogozin Makif Guimel secondary school. He later wrote about his childhood in a short autobiographical piece, "The Civilization Teacher." He did his military service in the technological intelligence unit of the IDF.

Media career

In 1983, Alfon began writing for ''Pi Ha'aton,'' the student newspaper of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Less than a year later, he was invited by Tom Segev and Nahum Barnea to join a new journalistic venture, the political weekly ''Koteret Rashit.'' Alfon joined Haaretz in 1989, where he wrote a weekly column, "Kivun Harouah", about the relations between culture and money. He was appointed editor of the cultural page in 1992, turning it to the daily section "Galleria". He launched several new journalistic formats for Haaretz along the years among them "Captain Internet", a weekly column supposedly written by a fictive grandfather investigating the new medium (1994), "The Marker Magazine", a business monthly (2001) and the re-designed Haaretz Weekend Magazine, where he was editor from 1992 to 1998. Alfon was chief editor of the Kinneret Zmora-Bitan publishing house (2004–2008) and hosted "Nispah Tarbut", a weekly cultural show on Israel's Channel 2 television (2002–2007). He was appointed editor in chief of ''Haaretz'' on May 1, 2008, serving in this position until 2011. In 2008, he published a special issue of the newspaper where leading authors replaced the newspaper reporters for a day. The experiment drew extensive coverage worldwide. He was co-editor, with writer Etgar Keret, of a new international cultural venture aiming to mix literature and cinema in a new format. In April 2013 Alfon became the founding editor of ''Alaxon'', an online magazine in Hebrew, ending his tenure as its editor in chief in December 2014. His debut thriller novel was published in English as ''A Long Night in Paris'' in 2019. On 16 September 2020, Dov Alfon was appointed editor-in-chief and head of editorial strategy of the French newspaper '' Libération''.

Condemnation for defamation

By judgment dated February 10, 2022, the Paris Criminal Court (17th chamber) condemned Dov Alfon, Director of publication of the newspaper '' Libération'', for having publicly defamed Professor :fr:Jean-François Toussaint, known to relativize the seriousness of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic in France.

Awards and recognition

* Winner of the CWA International Dagger Award 2019 * Recipient of the Marianne award 2019 for the best thriller published in France that year. *Recipient of the Peace Through Media Award 2011 from the International Council for Press and Broadcasting, London International Media awards *Jury chairman
Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society, 2009
(awarded to Haruki Murakami) * Ophir Prize nominee for best TV Cultural show (with editor Irit Dolev), 2005, 2006, 2008 *Gold Medal in the magazine category from the American Illustrators Society (1997, with Israeli artist Hanoch Piven). *Editor of the Year Award, the Israeli Press Association (1994, 1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfon, Dov Living people Jewish Israeli writers Israeli newspaper editors 1961 births Tunisian Jews French emigrants to Israel Tunisian emigrants to France Israeli people of Tunisian-Jewish descent People from Ashdod People from Sousse Haaretz people Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Lycée Henri-IV alumni Israeli publishers (people) Israeli columnists Israeli television people Israeli novelists Israeli thriller writers