The Free Press
We’ve Launched A New Podcast!
NewslettersSign InSubscribe
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman is a Jerusalem-based columnist for The Free Press. He’s the author of five nonfiction books, of which the most recent is Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, just published by Spiegel & Grau.
MattiFriedman
Introduction to Gazology
A new literary genre refashions the ruins of Gaza into a dark political parable with a familiar villain.
Matti Friedman
The Jewish Volunteers Who Returned to Nazi Europe
In 1944, Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine parachuted into occupied Europe. Their official task was to help the Allies. Their real hope was to…
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman: Israel Had a Disorienting 2025. What Comes Next?
As the world’s attention moves away from the Jewish State, its people are left to pick up the pieces.
Matti Friedman
Jews and Christians at ‘the End of Time’
To understand our own era, go back 2,000 years.
Matti Friedman
They Are Home
For two dark and often hopeless years, Israelis rallied to keep the hostages in the headlines. It worked.
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman: Is Gaza Starving? Searching for the Truth in an Information War.
When I asked a former senior government official if there is mass hunger among Gazans, he answered me honestly: ‘I don’t know.’
Matti Friedman
At the Symbol of Israeli Science, a Cost Too Vast to Calculate
Israelis are emerging from the shelters to assess the damage of 12 days of war. At the Weizmann Institute, the cost is impossible to measure.
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman: After the Bombs
American B-2s just changed the Middle East. Now it’s time to return the region to the humans who live here.
Matti Friedman
Bombs Rain Down—and a Divided Israel Unites Behind the War
Israelis have lost many things since October 7. One is the idea that the West is coming to save us. No one will wage this necessary battle but us.
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman: A Siren. And a New Middle East.
It’s a cliché to say that the Middle East is at a turning point. But sometimes it’s true. June 13, 2025, is one of those times.
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman: What the Kibbutz Can Teach Israel on Its 77th Birthday
Of the 400 residents of Nir Oz, a quarter were either kidnapped or killed by Hamas on October 7. Now, they rebuild.
Matti Friedman
Qatargate Roils a War-Weary Israel
Qatari money is like fingerprints that appear when an ultraviolet light turns on. Few expected it to turn up in Israel itself.
Matti Friedman
For Free People.
LatestSearchAboutCareersShopPodcastsVideoEvents
©2026 The Free Press. All Rights Reserved.Powered by Substack.
Privacy∙Terms∙Collection notice