Renowned Austrian-Israeli editor and former International Press Institute (IPI) Executive Board Member Ari Rath, who headed the English-language broadsheet newspaper The Jerusalem Post for 14 years and was a staunch proponent of Palestinians’ right to have their own state, died in Vienna on Friday, just one week after celebrating his 92nd birthday.

“Ari Rath was a voice of balance and reason on the IPI board when I was chairman and during my membership,” Ranald Macdonald, former chairman of the Australian newspaper The Age and chairman of IPI’s Executive Board from 1978 to 1980, recalled on Friday.

“A courageous editor, he fought for press freedom – the right of the community to be informed – and had a major influence on the international community of editors, publishers and journalists. The Jerusalem Post claimed international recognition and respect because of his editorship during the most difficult of times.”

IPI World Press Freedom Hero Raymond Louw of South Africa, who served on the IPI Executive Board with Rath in the late 1970s and early 80s, added: “I am saddened by his departure. … He was a firm, though quiet, supporter of press freedom, human rights and the cause of peace.”

Born as Arnold Rath in Vienna on January 6, 1925, Rath fled the country of his birth in 1938, shortly after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany. Together with his elder brother, he immigrated to Palestine, where he lived on a kibbutz for 16 years and studied history and economics.

Rath, who never learned English at school but was self-taught, began his career in journalism at the Jerusalem Post in 1957. He was named the newspaper’s chief editor in 1975, a post he held until 1989.

Under his editorship, the Post became an internationally acclaimed newspaper and the liberal voice of Israel. Rath counted many of Israel’s early leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir, among his friends. He interviewed world leaders like German chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, and became an advocate of peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians, an editorial line the Post upheld throughout his period as editor.

After leaving the Post, Rath worked as a freelance journalist and lecturer, writing for international publications and editing the online journal Partners for Peace.

His support of dialogue to promote tolerance and understanding won him numerous awards, including Germany’s Order of Merit and the City of Vienna’s Golden Medal of Honour.

Rath’s Austrian citizenship, which he lost in 1938, was returned to him in 2007 and he spent his last years in Vienna, lecturing about Austria’s Nazi past and political developments in Austria and Israel. He published his memoirs in German, “Ari heißt Löwe” (Ari Means Lion), in 2012.

Former IPI Executive Board member Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, editor-in-chief of the Austrian daily Der Standard, was with Rath during his final hours.

“Ari was a great journalist and a fighter for peace in the Middle East and for press freedom,” she said on Friday. “He was active against populism and an advocate for quality journalism.”

Current IPI Executive Board member Beata Balogová, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily newspaper SME, added: “An exceptional human being has departed. Ari Rath was an immense inspiration for me. He had important memories and he said when I met him in 2015 that he was still alive to tell his story so that people learn from it.”