Ethan Michaeli

Ethan Michaeli is an award-winning journalist, international speaker, and author whose work has taken him from the halls of the United States Congress to African villages and South African townships. Through his writing, Michaeli has addressed a variety of difficult topics such as race and identity relationships, media and justice, and cultural identity in the 21st century.

Michaeli’s first book, The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America, won the 2016 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. In it, Michaeli tells the story of how Chicago Defender, a widely read newspaper founded by Robert Sengstacke Abbott in 1905, played a significant role in transforming the African-American community. Abbott and his journalist colleagues provided an alternative narrative to media’s dominant discourse of stereotypes and misinformation. By utilizing investigative journalism and creative marketing and advertising, they managed to influence the political, cultural, and economic life of African-Americans in Chicago and around the country.

Michaeli's latest book, The Martyr and the Traitor: The Story of Death and Honor in the Struggle for American Freedom tells the story of the controversial figures at the center of the 1944 treason trial of Major Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin was an international lawyer and the creator of the concept of genocide. In the book, Michaeli explores the ties between race, politics, and justice that spanned two countries and half a century. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as interviews with major figures from the trial and its aftermath, The Martyr and the Traitor illuminates a chapter in America’s past that changed legal history and has major implications for today.

Michaeli was born in Jerusalem and raised in the United States. He has over 20 years of journalistic experience and has written for Chicago Tribune, The Jerusalem Post, The Nation, and many other media outlets in both countries. Michaeli has served on the board of several global non-profit organizations and is currently a member of the editorial board of the New American Leaders Project. He is a faculty fellow of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

Michaeli has received two Reuters Foundation journalism awards and two Emmys. His research and reporting have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The New York Times and many other publications.

In addition to his professional life, Michaeli is committed to community service and regularly speaks at schools, churches, and libraries around the country. His topics include the power of story-telling, the importance of digital literacy, and the need to promote diversity in the digital space.

Ethan Michaeli is a well-respected writer, journalist, and author. His work on the legacy of the Chicago Defender and the Raphel Lemkin trial proving his ability to tackle difficult topics while keeping the human element in focus. His research skills and eye for detail highlight the connection between history and today’s world and inspires thoughtful discourse on race, justice, and media.