jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

to make a big fuss out of not being invited somewhere, then the next time when you have a real issue, you
won’t get what you want.
● What is your impression about non-Jewish German media coverage on developments in Jewish life here in
Germany? Is it objective?
Very short-sighted, and also, I think, promoted by many Community leaders, focused on integration
problems. Also basically equating integration problems of Russian-speaking Jews with Russian Germans,
equating them to Turkish immigrants. Saying they have the same problems, which is not true. Though there is
a new trend now of reporting with a bit more nuance about our people. Another issue is understanding the
difference between the several Jewish identities and accepting the secular Jewish identity. This you will not
find. You will not find this in the press. For them it’s like a church, for them it’s about religion and you have
all the problems stemming from that. This way of thinking is also applied to Israel and the Middle East
conflict, where they reduce the conflict or reduce Israel to a Jewish religious state, which is simply not true.
● This is the mainstream media?
Yes, I would say so. Some papers cover Jewish religion equating it with the sharia, and the Jewish State then
becomes something like a Jewish Sharia State, but it has nothing to do with that.
● So there are lots of clichés and stereotypes?
I wouldn’t call them stereotypes, I would call it lack of information and unwillingness to deal with a nuanced
reality.
● Jewish Sharia State is a stereotype.
I think it’s just taking one dimension of Jewish identity and projecting it on something. They wouldn’t write
Jewish Sharia State or theocracy. They wouldn’t say it directly, but in the way the argument flows you will
notice it. Also in the way they talked about the Gaza war and the way they talk about Lieberman. People
don’t understand the difference between Lieberman and Shas! They think that Lieberman is a Jewish radical,
and therefore he is a danger, he embodies the danger of Jewish ultra-religion whatever state. Which isn’t true,
it’s exactly the opposite, but people don’t understand this. I just had this discussion about generalizations.
● So you see a chain reaction in the coverage of Israel?
No, they take the internal political debate in Israel which is, of course, polarized. It’s like here, some public
figures argue that the CDU is a right-wing extremist anti-Muslim party. So when Germans say that the CDU
is an anti-Muslim party, Christian Democrats in Germany must be anti-Muslims in general, and this is how it
works with Israel in the German media. Of course the Israeli discourse is totally polarized and they just take
what they want, instead of actually dealing with issues and content.
● How do you see the development of the Jewish media in Germany? There are only a few papers, but do you
see any pluralism?
No.
● How can the structure of Jewish media in Germany be strengthened? Maybe by adopting models from
other European countries with strong Jewish Communities?
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