jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

Probably everything together, we won’t ever really know now. It took 3 years. I don’t know how many
folders of paperwork we filled about this. And no one was named, just “resident”. We were called “the Jews”.
And he didn’t sue us, but the city of Leipzig. The city of Leipzig won the trial. What was the headline in the
paper? “The Jews won, the residents lost. “
● In which paper?
In the Leipziger Volkszeitung, the local paper.
● Do you think this is objective reporting?
Well, I called and as I’ve said, we have really friendly, warm relations. But then suddenly something like this
happens. Because this headline was written by someone who only writes headlines. They wrote what grabs
your attention. But it was stupid. “The Jews won and the residents lost.” It was one resident; thousands of
others gathered signatures on petitions for the building project. That means that it’s also insulting to the
residents, this failed headline. But the article itself was fine and correct.
● You mean it was just the semantics?
I’m telling you what happened. In Leipzig I really can’t complain, but just praise the papers, because they
also pay a lot of attention to the Jewish Community. You can just click on this paper in the Internet, and there
you’ll see.
● Turning to the Jewish media. Do you think, structurally, there needs to be more? What would you like to
see more of, content wise to be more useful for the Communities?
That’s difficult. I haven’t really thought about it.
● It’s the same question in principle. Is it helpful?
You need the media. Particularly our people, the older generation, for them the media opinion is very
important. When something was written in Pravda, then it was like, “It was in the papers, did you read it? It
was in the paper!” You could have 1,000 reasons as to why the world is colorful and someone would say:
“No, it’s black and white, it says so in the paper!” This was the number-one-argument. It says so in the paper.
That’s why the opinion in the paper is very important for our people and the Community life, if that would be
more present in the paper. If there could be extra pages devoted to this, I understand it’s a question of cost, as
well, but still. More about Community life, more letters to the editor, a little more connection to the
Communities, that would be great. Now the paper has a bit of a, let’s say elevated character, the quality.
● You mean the Jüdische Allgemeine?
Yes, the Jüdische Allgemeine. It’s a cut above. The Jewish paper in Russian, the Evreyskaya, is crap, but
that’s why it’s so popular. People read it because it’s in Russian, of course, but they also like it. It is fantastic
as well. There they have the words from the Torah, for Shabbat, for the holidays, Jewish biographies and so
on. From the “old country”, from Israel, everything together and both sides of opinion: pro and contra. You
might think that the publishers aren’t from Russia because it’s so modern in this sense.
● We are still talking about the Evreyskaya Gazeta?
Yes, the Evreyskaya. But the Evreyskaya Gazeta will also experience some problems in the next few years,
10 years. We are the generation that likes to read in Russian, but I prefer to read in German.
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