User:Channah Lee/Daniel Edelson

Daniel Edelson is an Israeli-American author, journalist, screenwriter and op-ed contributor. Born in 1986.

Biography
Daniel Edelson was born in Kibbutz Beit Zera and grew up in Kibbutz Degania Bet in the Jordan Valley. At the end of his high school years, his family moved to Poria Illit, near Poria Hospital. His father, Prof. Gordon Edelson, established the hospital's orthopedic department and managed it it until his retirement. After a Pre-Army Service Year in Ein Prat: the Academy for Leadership, Edelson enlisted in the IDF as a combet soldier in the elite unit Duvdevan, but dropped out during the training. Later, after establishing a newspaper for the Paratroopers Brigade, he became a military correspondent for the Infantry Corps and "Bamahane״, the Israeli Defense Force weekly magazine.

In 2008, at the end of his military service, he began working as a news desk reporter for Ynet. His investigating works included uncovering a fictitious degree claimed by an Israeli parliament member Shlomo Molla and a Turkish TV drama fictitiously showing Israeli army soldiers deliberately shooting at children. The exposure led to a diplomatic incident that began the deterioration of relations between Israel and Turkey.

In 2010, Edelson went on a sabbatical year that included 7 months of volunteering at Tevel B'Tzedek iNGO in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In 2011, he returned to work as a reporter for Yedioth Ahronoth. His first article was in the "7 Days" weekend edition, and covered the phenomenon of "reverse culture shock" experienced by backpackers returning home from a long trip. He was later appointed the newspaper's health reporter. Among other things, he covered the medical interns' struggles for reasonable wages and hours, published exclusive stories such as the "Model Law", the development of a new strain of non-intoxicating cannabis, the link between taking jasmine birth control pills to a deadly blood clot and exposed the tragic case of a 7-year-old girl who was mistakenly diagnosed with cancer and given chemotherapy.

In 2012 he replaced Boaz Arad as the newspaper's Far East Correspondent and moved to Hong Kong, where he studied for a bachelor's degree in International Relations and Geography in a joint program at Hong Kong University, Princeton University in the United States, Yonsei in Seoul, and Keio in Tokyo. Two years later he also started working as the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation Radio News Reporter in Hong Kong. As part of his role he was sent for coverage in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Oman, China, Australia and Ghana. He revealed, among others, the case of Israeli gold smugglers in Hong Kong, he was among the first Israelis to enter North Korea , and the first to interview the Australian family of "Prisoner X" - the Mossad agent who committed suicide in his prison cell. He was sent to cover the 2014 Nepal snowstorm disaster and the 2014 Hong Kong protests.

In 2015 he worked for the Israeli Ministry of Economy's Trade Attaché in Hong Kong and in 2017 he launchd a social startup, utilizing AI and Image Recognition for identification and persenol recommendation of food products in traditional Asian wet markets. The startup has raised more than $1.5 million from venture capital funds, government incubators and IBM.

In 2019, he returned to Israel and began working as a content development manager and editor at Yedioth Ahronoth, subordinate to the group's VP, Alon Goldstein.

In June 2019 he was sent again to cover the riots in Hong Kong and in February he was sent to cover the Covid-19 outbreak in China. He was among the few reporters in the world who managed to report from the besieged area of Hubei Province.

In early 2020, he published his debut novel, The Tea House on the Death Pass, published by Yedioth Books. The novel is based on the events that took place during the blizzard in the Himalayas, which he covered five years earlier.

The book received a grant from The Israel Film Fund to be adapted into a screenplay, as well as a grant from Beit Lessin Theater and the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality to be adapted for the stage.

In 2021, ViacomCBS optioned the book for a TV series.

Category:People from Tel Aviv Category:Israeli opinion journalists Category:Israeli writers Category:Yedioth Ahronoth people Category:People from Degania Bet Category:Israeli expatriates in the United States