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‘Unorthodox’ author Deborah Feldman is a lightning rod in Germany’s debate about criticizing Israel
(JTA) — The TV series “Unorthodox” took the world by storm in 2020. Now, recent comments about Israel by the story’s Berlin-based Jewish heroine, author Deborah Feldman, have created a storm of another kind.
Feldman, 37, a dual American-German citizen, rose to fame through her story of fleeing the Satmar Hasidic community of Brooklyn to the welcoming streets of Berlin. She is now making the rounds of German and British media, unabashedly criticizing Israel’s war against Hamas and taking umbrage at what she considers Germany’s misguided support for the Jewish state.
Her pet peeve: German eagerness “to lecture us on how any criticism of Israel is antisemitic.” On a recent talking heads TV program on the broadcaster ZDF, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said “Israel has the right to defend itself and Germany has the obligation to stand by Israel.”
“Israel must also adhere to international law and do everything in its power to protect civilians,” he said. “But Israel’s task is almost impossible since Hamas hides behind civilians.”
With Habeck listening remotely on a big screen behind her, Feldman, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors from Hungary, told him she was “appalled” that Jews are “selectively protected” in Germany. Though antisemitism is on the rise, she said, “sometimes empty synagogues” get police protection while other places where Jews gather — such as kosher restaurants or Jewish museums — have to take care of themselves. JTA has not confirmed this, and Feldman and her attorney have not responded to JTA requests for comment.
Feldman has garnered support from some, derision from others. The controversy hits a raw nerve in Germany, where criticism of Israel has been subject to intense scrutiny for decades after World War II. But there has long been a growing thirst for Jewish voices to break the supposed taboos.
Most Jews in Germany rush to Israel’s side in times of crisis, whether or not they like the country’s government and its policies towards the Palestinians. German politicians and mainstream Jewish organizations, such as the Central Council of Jews in Germany, usually dismiss voices like Feldman’s as an annoying fringe phenomenon — but Jewish leadership has become increasingly uncomfortable with the dynamic.
In the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Berlin-based American Jewish scholar Susan Neiman decried Germany’s “silencing of critical Jewish voices,” including Feldman’s.
Neiman, director of the Einstein Forum foundation in Berlin, noted that several venues had canceled events promoting Feldman’s new book, “Judenfetisch” (“Jew Fetish”), which argues that German guilt over the Holocaust has distorted its relationship to Jews and Israel. Neiman also said the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Berlin is “suing Feldman to take the book off the shelves.” JTA has learned that Chabad won its suit on Nov. 1 over a false allegation related to state funding for Ukrainian-Jewish refugees in Berlin. Books on the shelves of shops can stay where they are, but the offending material will be removed from future editions, said Chabad’s attorney Nathan Gelbart.
Some book tour events may have been canceled, but Feldman, who moved to Berlin in 2014, has still been getting plenty of publicity, noted writer Mirna Funk — “more than any of us,” said Funk. The German-born Jewish novelist and journalist recently shared the Arik Brauer Journalism Prize from the Vienna-based Middle East think tank Mena-Watch for writing on the Middle East, with Israeli-German psychologist and author Ahmad Mansour.
“Deborah has no idea about Jews in Germany and no idea about Israel, but since Oct. 7 German media has dragged her onto many TV shows and quoted her in many newspapers,” Funk said in an Instagram post.
Author Mirna Funk, shown in 2020, thinks that Feldman is getting more air time than German-born Jews. (Gerald Matzka/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“The woman comes from an anti-Zionist sect in Brooklyn and is considered a representative of Germany’s Jewish community,” Funk wrote. “It’s slowly getting to the point where I can only stand it all if I can beam myself 15 years or so into the future and look back on this time, after the nightmare is over.”
Though German foreign policy has been overall very supportive of Israel, popular support for the Jewish state has waned steadily since the 1960s. Politics reflects that shift, with increasing government criticism of Israel’s settlement policy over the years. Germany no longer automatically stands up for Israel in European Union and United Nations forums.
Sacha Stawski, president and founder of the Frankfurt-based pro-Israel initiative Honestly Concerned, agreed that there is a distinct popular appetite for Jewish Israel critics.
“People like Deborah Feldman have made a business model out of being anti-Zionist, and being outspoken Israel haters,” Stawski told JTA.
Such critics are “well-received guests on all the major talk shows,” he said. “For somebody like Feldman to claim that people are trying to shut her up and that she’s not able to raise her voice is the greatest bullshit I have ever heard.”
Feldman and Neiman also are among the more than 100 signatories to a recent open letter in N+1 magazine from Jewish writers, artists and intellectuals in Germany, condemning what they describe as an indiscriminate crackdown on voices critical of Israel. The letter was also published in German in the left-wing daily Tageszeitung.
The letter was the brainchild of American writer Alex Cocotas, 36, who moved to Germany eight years ago after living in Israel for a couple of years. It started as a text message to a handful of friends who, like him, were “horrified about what was happening in Israel, but also about what was happening here in Germany as well,” he told JTA.
What triggered the action was a government ban on certain statements and symbols at pro-Palestinian demonstrations following Oct. 7. After participants in one Berlin rally celebrated the brutal attack, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the group that called for the rally would be banned. Schools in Berlin were told they could also bar the wearing of the Palestinian flag, keffiyeh headscarves and other pro-Palestinian symbols.
It was such broad measures that the open letter targeted. While condemning the Hamas attack, the writers said the banning of “public gatherings with presumed Palestinian sympathies” — including those called by Jews — serves to “suppress legitimate nonviolent political expression that may include criticisms of Israel.”
Cocotas said that despite his efforts to reach the mainstream Jewish community in Germany, most of the signatories were American or Israeli Jews living here.
In laws shaped by the post-war reckoning with its National Socialist past, Germany bars Holocaust denial and the use of Nazi slogans and symbols. Germany also has formally accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which includes the denial of Israel’s right to exist as a form of antisemitic hate speech.
“In the U.S. you can deny the Holocaust in public, and you will not be prosecuted,” said Cocotas, adding that he recognized the differences between German and American laws. But “I don’t consider ‘Free Palestine’ to be an antisemitic statement. It should be protected speech.”
His concerns echo those of Germany’s commissioner on antisemitism and Jewish life, Felix Klein, who recently told the Guardian newspaper that the broad restriction of protests was “worrying,” because “demonstrating is a basic right.”
“It’s unfortunate that it’s a very small group of Hamas supporters and people that are hating Israel that cause all this trouble,” Klein said.
Another American transplant to Berlin, William Glucroft, told JTA that he believes the restrictions are deeply problematic. “As a writer and journalist, I can only be for unfettered access to public expression,” Glucroft, who signed the open letter, told JTA in an email. “As a Jew, my safety and well-being are only thanks to democratic ideals of equal protection and rule of law. That has to be there for everyone.”
“Germany’s understanding of its history leads it to think it owes something to Israel, a country that did not exist” during the Third Reich, he continued. Germany itself “blurs the line between Jews and Israel, which endangers Jews and by the IHRA definition that Germany itself endorses, is antisemitic.”
Micki Weinberg, founder of the Berlin based SHIUR Jewish learning project, also received the open letter. But he declined to sign.
“I completely understand one’s interest to have empathy with the Palestinians — and I do — but that doesn’t mean ignoring attacks on Jews and denigrating a legitimate fear,” he told JTA by text message.
“If the letter simply acknowledged the real risk of antisemitism within Islamist and pro-Palestinian/Anti-Israel groups and asked for a separation between legitimate pro-Palestinian demos and antisemitic pro-Palestinian demos, then that would be fine.”
Funk, who calls both Berlin and Tel Aviv home, said she was surprised to find the name of an Israeli friend among the signatories.
“I texted him after I saw his name on the list: ‘What the f— are you doing?’ There is a huge disconnect between the established Jewish community in Germany and the Israelis,” she said. “They simply don’t understand Germany.”
“I would not sign, because Palestinians are not suppressed,” she said, noting that there are 5.5 million Muslims in Germany and about 100,000 registered members of Jewish communities.
“They are not being silenced,” said Funk. “They are demonstrating on the streets every f—ing day for Gaza. So I don’t know what they are talking about.”
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US Senate Confirms Thomas Barrack as Ambassador to Turkey Amid Concern Over Ankara’s Hamas Support
Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Donald Trump who chaired the former president’s inaugural fund, exits following a not guilty verdict at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, US, Nov. 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Thomas Barrack, a private equity leader and long-time supporter of President Donald Trump, as the new US ambassador to Turkey, a country which has had a tumultuous relationship with Washington in recent years despite their shared membership in the NATO alliance.
Barrack’s confirmation passed with a 60-36 vote, largely supported by Republican senators, who control 53 out of the Senate’s 100 seats.
In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month, Barrack highlighted Turkey’s strategic significance as a US ally and emphasized Ankara’s position within NATO.
“Sitting at the most strategic crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Turkey’s NATO contributions are numerous,” he told lawmakers.
While speaking to committee members, he underscored the strength and size of Turkey’s military, the second largest in NATO.
Barrack’s confirmation comes as Turkey has continued to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and be one of the world’s most vocal critics of Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East, amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Turkey has long hosted senior Hamas officials, such as Marwan Muhammad Abu Ras, who in recent months has spread pro-terrorist propaganda in speeches and on the country’s state-controlled media outlets.
“The Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas] are at the forefront of the war and the jihad. … You must support the Qassam Brigades — with your prayers, your wealth, your politics, your weapons, with everything you have, you must support the Qassam Brigades,” Abu Ras said during a rally in southeastern Turkey earlier this month, according to the Nordic Research and Monitoring Network.
Several Hamas leaders have established residence in Turkey, often accompanied by their families. Some have acquired Turkish citizenship and passports, integrating further into the country. Many have even invested heavily in the real estate sector and now operate multi-million-dollar businesses. In addition to their commercial activities, these individuals remain actively involved in fundraising efforts that support Hamas’s international network.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been one of the most vocal anti-Israel voices during the Gaza war. In February, for example he demanded that Israel pay reparations “for the harm it inflicted through its aggressive actions in Gaza.”
Last year, Erdogan made an explicit threat to invade Israel, leading Israel’s foreign minister to call on NATO to expel Turkey. Ankara also called on the United Nations to use force if it can’t stop Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.
Turkey has reportedly blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since October 2023 because of the war in Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the conflict ends.
Last year, Ankara also ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel, citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories as the reason.
Erdogan has frequently defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He and other Turkish leaders have repeatedly compared Israel with Nazi Germany and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler
The day after Barrack’s confirmation, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) released a report arguing that the Trump administration should keep Turkey out of the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program, calling the country a “potentially threatening regional power” and citing Ankara’s extensive ties to Hamas.
“The United States must carefully consider whether Turkey, a rising, and potentially threatening, regional power led by the authoritarian, pro-Hamas, neo-Ottoman President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, can be trusted with this advanced jet,” the report stated.
JINSA noted Turkey’s decision to acquire the Russian S-400 air and missile defense system, despite repeated warnings from US officials. Washington ultimately blocked Turkey from procuring and producing the F-35 as a result. Ankara has sought to be readmitted into the program, and the Trump administration has reportedly been working on a deal to sell Turkey the jets if it relinquishes the S-400.
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Harvard Releases Long Awaited Antisemitism Task Force Report — and an Apology From the University’s President
Harvard University president Alan Garber attending the 373rd Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University has released its long anticipated report on campus antisemitism and along with it an apology from interim president Alan Garber which acknowledged that school officials failed in key ways to address the hatred to which Jewish students were subjected following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The over 300-page document, released on Tuesday, provides a complete account of antisemitic incidents which transpired on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s (PSC) endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon which depicted Jews as murderers of people of color — and said that one source of the problem is the institution’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups. It also issued recommendations for improving Jewish life on campus going forward.
“I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community. The grave, extensive impact of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on campus,” Garber said in the statement that accompanied the report. “Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry. We will continue to provide for the safety and security of all members of our community and safeguard their freedom from harassment. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the university is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained, and contested in the spirt of seeking truth; where argument proceeds without sacrificing dignity; and where mutual respect is the norm.”
The committee charged with writing the report — the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias — said that Harvard should enact a slew of reforms to achieve Garber’s hopes for the institution. It recommended reforming admissions to foster an “environment where each student is in genuine community with people with whom one may disagree”; using pre-orientation programs as a time for preparing new Harvard students for the immensity of being selected for membership in an elite institution of higher learning; reforming “time and place” policies which govern expression and peaceful assembly; and requiring offices charged with investigating complaints of discrimination to appoint an official who specializes in antisemitism and anti-Zionist bias.
“It is clear to the task force that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely,” the report continued. “We urge Harvard’s leadership, including the president, provost, deans, faculties, and offices of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging to become champions in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias — first at Harvard, and then as a model for institutions of higher learning everywhere.”
Further recommending that Harvard empower members of the task force to monitor the university’s implementation of its proposed policies, the report added, “We further call on Harvard’s leaders to combat, with equal resolve, all other forms of prejudice and intolerance, including anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias. This charge is made with particular urgency to those schools that operate in deeply politicized fields, such as medicine, public health, and education.”
Harvard’s report on campus antisemitism comes as the university prepares for a protracted legal battle with the Trump administration over the federal government’s impounding billions of dollars of taxpayer funds previously awarded to it, a measure imposed on the institution after it rejected policy suggestions proposed by the Trump administration to make it, according to the government, more meritocratic and less welcoming to left-wing extremists and antisemites. Throughout this conflict, US President Donald Trump has denounced the university as a betrayer of American values.
“Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart,” Trump said, writing on Truth Social on Thursday. “The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER and HATE [sic]. It is truly horrific. Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all ‘American Apple Pie.’ Harvard is a threat to democracy.”
Harvard has since taken steps towards meeting the Trump administration halfway, including by releasing the antisemitism report as was demanded of it on April 21. In March, it paused a partnership with a higher education institution located in the West Bank. On Thursday, just days after suing the Trump administration to stop its sequestration of federal funds, it moved to relocate disciplinary processes to the office of the president — a Trump administration demand. Most notably, Harvard has defunded segregated graduation ceremonies it has held for decades to legitimate a strain of identity politics which rejects racial integration and the shared destiny of the American people. Conservatives have argued for years that Harvard’s embrace of identity politics contributed to antisemitism on the campus.
More remains to be seen from the university, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, a group formed amid the post-Oct. 7 antisemitic outrages, said on Wednesday, writing on X.
“We appreciate the report’s identification of 3 problematic academic frameworks fueling campus antisemitism: denying Jewish connection to our ancestral homeland, embracing a distorted settler-colonialism framework, and refusing to recognize Jews as a historically vulnerable group,” the group said. “We now await concrete action plans from deans and meaningful implementation from President Garber, particularly regarding oversight of academic programs, accountability measures, and clear responsibility with metrics and public reporting.”
It added, “We remain concerned that the report retreats to comfortable academic parlance about ‘balance’ and ‘constructive dialogue’ in the face of factually incorrect narratives. Let’s hope Harvard isn’t burying a serious problem in the spectacle of academia.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard Releases Long Awaited Antisemitism Task Force Report — and an Apology From the University’s President first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Argentina Releases Trove of Documents Detailing Nazi War Criminals’ Activities After World War II
Argentina’s President Javier Milei attends a commemoration event ahead of the anniversary of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Martin Cassarini
The Argentine government has released nearly 2,000 previously classified secret service documents detailing the arrival of hundreds of Nazi war criminals who escaped to the country following the collapse of Nazi Germany during World War II.
“Starting today, anyone can access and download these documents,” Argentina’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on X.
Previously declassified in 1992 under a decree by then-Argentine President Carlos Menem, the documents could only be accessed in a specially designated room at Argentina’s National Archives (AGN).
On Monday, government officials announced the completion of restoration and digitization work, making more than 1,850 reports and nearly 1,300 previously classified decrees accessible online. These documents shed light on the activities of prominent Nazi war criminals who took refuge in Argentina after World War II, including Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann and the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele.
El Archivo General de la Nación hizo públicos documentos desclasificados sobre actividades nazis en Argentina y decretos presidenciales secretos.
Gracias a un extenso trabajo de restauración y digitalización, ahora podés acceder a más de 1850 informes y casi 1300 decretos… pic.twitter.com/4Ijs7fGqk0
— Vicejefatura de Gabinete del Interior (@vicejefaturaint) April 28, 2025
The published records show, for example, how Mengele — who was a physician and Nazi SS officer, nicknamed the “Angel of Death” for his inhumane medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz — entered Argentina in 1949 under the name Gregor Helmut and lived undisturbed in the country for decades.
Walter Kutschmann, a former Nazi official, also evaded justice for nearly 40 years. Despite being denounced to authorities in 1975, the records released by AGN show that he was not arrested until 1985. Instead, under his false identity, he worked in a hardware store, then as a taxi driver, and later as a purchasing director for the Argentine branch of the Osram lighting firm.
According to the previously classified documents, it is estimated that more than 10,000 Nazis used so-called “ratlines” to flee Germany as the Axis powers collapsed, with around half of them believed to have sought refuge in Argentina — known for its reluctance to grant extradition requests.
Titled “Documentation on Nazi Presence in Argentina,” these files include intelligence reports, photographs, and police records, compiling the results of investigations by federal authorities and the country’s leading intelligence agency from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Las autoridades de Argentina han revelado más de 1.850 documentos secretos sobre nazis de alto rango que huyeron a Sudamérica después del Holocausto !!!
Entre ellos: Josef Mengele, Walter Kochmann y Eduard Roschmann.
Gracias Milei !!! pic.twitter.com/I0Q0Iy7ax8
— Isaac (@isaacrrr7) April 29, 2025
Argentine President Javier Milei ordered the records to be released and digitized following a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center — a California-based Jewish human rights organization — and a meeting with its representatives in Buenos Aires earlier this year. The organization is currently investigating ties between Swiss bank Credit Suisse and Nazi Germany.
“We commend the release of declassified archives to the public,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Latin American office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Since taking office over a year ago, Milei has been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters, strengthening bilateral relations to unprecedented levels and in the process breaking with decades of Argentine foreign policy tradition to firmly align with Jerusalem and Washington.
Milei, who won Argentina’s November 2023 presidential election, has also been outspoken in his support and appreciation for Judaism. His presidency has come amid an economic crisis, soaring inflation, and longstanding corruption scandals that have burdened the country.
The Latin American leader will visit Israel in June, where he is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jewish State against terrorism and antisemitism. He is also scheduled to address the Israeli parliament and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In February 2024, on his first international trip as president, Milei visited Israel in a show of wartime solidarity and reiterated his pledge to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem. During his visit, he also traveled to Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Negev, where Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped several Israelis from their homes, including the Bibas family, on Oct. 7, 2023.
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