Raja Abdulrahim joining Jerusalem Bureau at The New York Times

Raja Abdulrahim

When you ask Raja Abdulrahim what her favorite stories are, the first thing she mentions is not her intrepid coverage of Syria’s civil war that made her a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2014 and won an Overseas Press Club Award, work judges praised as “beautifully detailed stories from the conflict zone, giving readers a human portrayal of war.”

No, the stories she enjoys most, she admits, are the quirky ones.

She has written about Egyptian activists accused of being bribed with Kentucky Fried Chicken, the rise of the man purse in Syria, the return of the pigeon keepers of Raqqa and the popularity of the board game Risk in Syria. She once wrote an obituary for a school bus.

So we are excited to announce that Raja is bringing her many talents to our Jerusalem bureau as a new correspondent. She will roam widely, writing about Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with a special focus on Palestinian affairs.

The position is one we have been looking to fill for a long time, and Raja was the perfect fit. A graduate of the University of Florida’s journalism school, Raja is an experienced foreign correspondent, a native Arabic speaker and a strong storyteller and writer, a fact confirmed not just by her clips, but also by our own Marjorie Olster, her former editor at The Wall Street Journal. She was based in Beirut for five years and has reported from Libya, Syria and Egypt for The Los Angeles Times and for The Journal.

We look forward to adding Raja’s voice to those of our superb team of correspondents in Jerusalem, Patrick Kingsley and Isabel Kershner.

Please welcome her when she starts at the end of the month.