German Jews

An armed sentry stands guard as civilian aliens, interned by England, walk inside an internment camp in the UK, June 2, 1940. (AP)

First person

They fled persecution in Nazi Germany. Then the British put them behind barbed wire

A new book sheds light on the little-known story of thousands of German Jewish refugees held in internment camps in the UK during World War II – including several of my ancestors

A projection of the former synagogue is seen at its historical place in Dortmund, Germany, November 9, 2021, to mark the 83rd anniversary of the anti-Jewish Kristallnacht pogrom. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

November 9, 2022, 4:40 pm

In Germany, Kristallnacht goes by a different name. Here’s why

Many German speakers are rejecting the euphemism for the events of Nov. 8-9, 1938, which translates to ‘night of shattered glass,’ saying it omits that more than glass was broken

By Toby Axelrod

November 5, 2022, 10:14 am

They fled persecution in Nazi Germany. Then the British put them behind barbed wire

A new book sheds light on the little-known story of thousands of German Jewish refugees held in internment camps in the UK during World War II – including several of my ancestors

By Amy Spiro

Rabbi Walter Homolka, rector of the Abraham Geiger College, in the Liberal Jewish community’s synagogue in Hanover, Germany in December 2016. (Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images via JTA)

October 28, 2022, 5:59 pm

German university finds prominent rabbi abused power, but can return to teaching

Walter Homolka investigated by University of Potsdam over allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of power; report recommends major administrative restructure

By Toby Axelrod

Avitall Gerstetter, shown in 2019, wrote a column critical of conversion in Germany. (Stephan Röhl/Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung via Wikimedia Commons/ via JTA)

September 14, 2022, 5:55 am

Is there such a thing as too many converts to Judaism? The debate roils German Jewry

After a Berlin cantor opens up a Pandora’s box in a public forum, she is fired from her post. But as Jewish community response rolls in, it’s clear she’s hardly alone in her musing

By Toby Axelrod

Twenty descendants of the Blach family in Stralsund Germany gather for an unlikely reunion that brought together three generations of relatives from across the globe. (Courtesy Stralsund City Archive/ via JTA)

September 3, 2022, 8:31 am

German cellist reunites over 30 members of a family descended from Holocaust victims

After being connected by Friederike Fechner, almost two dozen descendants of brothers Julius and Felix Blach come to Germany to see their once-prominent family’s legacy firsthand

By Penny Schwartz

Rolf Eden arrives for the Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin, Feb. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

August 18, 2022, 9:32 am

Rolf Eden, German playboy who fought in Israel’s Independence War, dies at 92

The Jewish nightclub owner, born Rolf Sigmund Sostheim, fled Germany for Israel in 1933 but later returned to Berlin to become the city’s ‘king of nightlife’

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Members of the Oberammergau Passion Play, which has been telling the New Testament story of Jesus’ death and resurrection since 1634, sing backstage in Oberammergau, Germany, July 12, 2022. (Angelika Warmuth/picture alliance via Getty Images/ via JTA)

August 18, 2022, 8:16 am

The director of Germany’s infamous Passion Play takes its antisemitism by the horns

Staged once a decade since the 17th century, the production brings visitors from around the world. The man directing it, Christian Stückl, says his changes are long overdue

By Toby Axelrod

An 'Enlightenment' scene with guests in the home of Moses Mendelssohn, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, 1856. (Public domain)

July 16, 2022, 2:40 pm

Epic historical novel digs deep into Zionism’s less probed Western European roots

In ‘The Wealthy,’ Israeli author Hamutal Bar-Yosef uses 200-year saga of fictional German-Anglo Jewish family to highlight different take on how the Jewish state came to be

By Renee Ghert-Zand

A collage of documents relating to women's rights in Algeria, 2020, one of the displays being showcased at the Documenta 2022. (Photo by Hichem Merouche/ Courtesy of the Archive of the struggles of the women in Algeria/ Documenta press office)

June 16, 2022, 9:56 pm

Are organizers of a major German art festival gaslighting critics about BDS support?

Opening June 18, the 15th Documenta is curated by an Indonesian collective whose members have accused Israel of apartheid, touching a nerve in a country haunted by the Holocaust

By Miriam Dagan

Illustrative: A service at the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam near Berlin. (photo credit: Margrit Schmidt)

June 3, 2022, 2:58 pm

Interim head of scandal-ridden German seminary doesn’t commit to replacing top rabbi

Gabriele Thöne says she is committed to a thorough investigation, but is mum about Rabbi Walter Homolka, who is at the center of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse of power

By Toby Axelrod

Israel's ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff speaks to AFP journalists during an interview in Berlin, on December 17, 2020. (John MacDougall/AFP)

May 10, 2022, 3:04 am

Outgoing Israeli envoy reflects on Germany’s most dramatic years since WWII

Jeremy Issacharoff’s tenure saw the ends of different leadership eras in both countries; resurgence of German far-right; pandemic; and now, war threatening to fracture Europe again

By Toby Axelrod

May 9, 2022, 7:50 pm

Head of German rabbinical school takes leave after husband accused of harassment

Rabbi Walter Homolka suspends duties in Jewish community and seminary at University of Potsdam after report detailing student’s sexual harassment complaint and ‘climate of fear’

By Toby Axelrod

Hannah Arendt conducts a seminar at The New School in Manhattan, February 19, 1969. (Neal Boenzi/New York Times Co./Getty Images/ via JTA)

April 25, 2022, 2:25 am

Follow in Hannah Arendt’s footsteps on this New York walking tour

Biographer Samantha Rose Hill shows the personal side of the sometimes-controversial philosopher who fled Hitler’s Germany to become the center of NYC’s intellectual scene

By Andrew Silow-Carroll

Illustrative: A man wears a kippah at a demonstration against an anti-Semitic attack in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

April 20, 2022, 5:50 pm

German intel agency warns antisemitism is filtering into mainstream discourse

BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang says hateful imagery present at protests over COVID restrictions, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russia’s war in Ukraine

By AP

Illustrative: In this June 19, 1938, picture, the word Jude (Jew) is smeared on the windows of a shop in Berlin run by Jews. (AP Photo, FILE)

February 17, 2022, 9:56 am

German dictionary changes ‘Jew’ definition after outcry over tie to Nazi use of word

Update made after Germany’s Jewish community rejects claim that ‘Jude’ may be discriminatory due to ‘the memory’ of word’s deployment in Holocaust

By Kirsten Grieshaber