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Meet Karin Prien, the woman who could become Germany’s first Jewish president
(JTA) — Living in Amsterdam in the years after World War II, Karin Prien’s parents’ bookshelves were lined with the works of Jewish authors like Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer. When she was a young child and her family moved from the vibrant and multicultural city of Amsterdam to Neuwied, a small town in Rhineland, their Jewish social life dwindled. In Germany, her mother was afraid to publicly declare her Jewish roots in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust.
Fast forward five decades, and Prien is now a federal minister with the Christian Democratic Union in the German parliament, and one of the most powerful politicians in Germany. She is also the first person with Jewish ancestry to head a German ministry since World War II.
“The fact that I’m a person with a Jewish biography is something unusual in Germany,” Prien told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at a reception in New York this month. “It’s not normal.”
Now she is in line for another first: She has also emerged as a possible frontrunner as the successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the 2027 election.
Should Prien win the presidential election, she would be the first person with Jewish ancestry at the head of the German state. Distinct from the chancellorship, the federal president is a primarily ceremonial but still significant role.
“The development of the German-Jewish friendship we have today, some people describe it as a miracle,” she said. “But still, there is a lack of normalcy in the relationship between German Jews and non-Jewish Germans. I think it’s something special when a Jewish person, or a person with a Jewish biography, is in a leading political position in Germany.”
A staunch believer in liberal democracy and a supporter of Israel at a time when faith in both are declining, Prien represents the liberal wing of the center-right CDU as the minister for education, family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth.
“It would be a very strong symbol if a Jewish person would become president of Germany in 2027,” Prien said.
Prien, 61, was born in Amsterdam. Both her maternal and paternal grandfathers were Jewish Holocaust survivors. She identifies as a person of “Jewish biography.” Neither her maternal grandmother nor her paternal grandmother were Jewish, meaning that according to the strictest interpretations of Jewish law, she would not be considered Jewish.
But family members on both sides were persecuted for their Jewish heritage. She was raised on Jewish culture and literature and wears a star of David necklace while in public. And since 2018, has chaired the Jewish Forum of the CDU, a group that both combats antisemitism and liaises the Jewish community with the party.
She is not religious, but she describes her childhood and the childhoods of her parents as full of Jewish culture. Her parents, for example, played in the Maccabi tennis club while they were growing up in Amsterdam, Prien said. When she was about 16, Prien’s mother overcame her qualms and gave her a star of David necklace, which she wears in her official parliament portrait.
“I want to show that it has to be normal to show Jewish symbols,” Prien said. “It’s kind of a statement.”
Such normalization took place at the official level at the German parliament, which recently ran an exhibit highlighting its members with “Jewish biographies” from its early days to its reconfiguration after the Nazi era. In the latter case, some people with Jewish heritage served in the government alongside the very same party members who persecuted them.
On March 11, Prien met with a number of American and European Jewish organizational leaders at the official residence of the German consul in Manhattan to hear their concerns. (Following her New York visit, Prien headed to Washington, D.C., where she toured the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)
“I really appreciated the fact that she took time to meet with the WJC and other Jewish organizations,” said Lauren Rose, executive director of the executive office of the World Jewish Congress. “It further shows the key commitment that Germany has when it comes to really taking the concerns of Jewish communities seriously.”
Prien has long said that her decision to become politically engaged is “closely linked” to her family’s history and experience during the Holocaust.
On her mother’s side, Prien is the great-great-granddaughter of a prominent Düsseldorf merchant, Salomon Hartoch, the owner of the Hartoch department store whose descendants moved to the Netherlands in 1935 to escape persecution. On her father’s side, she is the granddaughter of a Jewish lawyer from Prague.
“My parents were, in a sense, uprooted, and I consider it a great privilege to live in a free country where I now feel deeply rooted,” she told the German Jewish publication Jüdische Allgemeine in 2019.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, that connection only became stronger when Prien recognized a rise in antisemitism and extremism in her own country and around the world.
“I can see that authoritarian ideologies — they are attractive to people,” Prien told JTA. “And they are becoming more and more attractive. And not only in Germany, but also in other liberal democracies.”
One of those growing threats comes from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right political party now classified by Germany as an extremist group. Prien has said that she would emigrate, possibly to Israel, if the AfD were to take power in Germany’
Prien visited Israel for the first time in October, shortly after the final Israeli hostages taken by Hamas two years earlier were released. While there, she toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
Since the Hamas attacks, Germany has supported Israel’s right to defend itself and rejected claims that the IDF carried out a genocide in Gaza. Still, amid public clamor over the war, Berlin signaled concern over civilian casualties in Gaza, and for a time in 2025 put a temporary halt on military exports to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s important to explain to people in Germany that for the Israeli people, [the right to self-defense is] really about how to survive,” Prien said. “And that doesn’t mean that I or the German government is in consensus with every step that is made by the Israeli government.”
She added, “The obedience to international law is a very important point for us in Germany.”
As the education minister, Prien counts education as a key antidote to the growing interest in authoritarianism worldwide. She has promoted a federal educational program called “Demokratie leben!” or “Living Democracy!” which works to prevent extremism and strengthen democracy.
But she wants to show German citizens that liberal democracy can function in the first place.
Said Prien, “We have to make clear that it’s a real privilege to live in a free society, and that the consequences of giving up freedom are severe, and it’s worth fighting for a liberal democracy.”
The post Meet Karin Prien, the woman who could become Germany’s first Jewish president appeared first on The Forward.
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Hezbollah Pays Steep Price in Battle to Reverse Its Fortunes
Workers remove a coffin with a body from temporary graves and prepare for transport for a funeral ceremony of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
Hezbollah has paid a heavy price for going to war with Israel on March 2: Israel has occupied a chunk of southern Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands of its Shi’ite Muslim constituents and killed as many as several thousand of its fighters, according to previously unreported casualty estimates from within the group.
The move has brought severe political consequences, too. In Beirut, opposition has hardened to its status as an armed group, which domestic rivals see as exposing Lebanon to repeated wars with Israel.
In April, Lebanon’s government held face-to-face talks with Israel for the first time in decades, a decision Hezbollah firmly opposed.
However, more than a dozen Hezbollah officials told Reuters they see a chance to reverse deteriorating fortunes by aligning with Tehran in its war with Israel and the United States. The group, founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982, opened fire two days into the conflict, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
The group’s calculations are based on the assessment that its participation would force Lebanon onto the agenda of U.S.-Iranian negotiations, and that Iranian pressure can secure a more robust ceasefire than one that took effect in November 2024 following a conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, the officials said.
Hezbollah was mauled in the last war, which killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with some 5,000 fighters, and weakened its long-dominant hold over the Lebanese state.
Rearmed with Iranian help, it has used new tactics and drones, surprising many with its capabilities after a fragile 15-month truce during which Hezbollah held fire, even as Israel continued to kill its members.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi denied the group was acting on Iran’s behalf when it resumed hostilities, as alleged by opponents. He told Reuters Hezbollah saw a window to “break this vicious cycle … where the Israelis can target, assassinate, bombard, kill, without any revenge.”
He acknowledged losses and damage in southern Lebanon but said “you don’t go into making calculations of how many are going to be killed” when “pride and sovereignty and independence” are at stake.
Hezbollah’s media office said the figure of several thousand fighters killed in the present war was false.
While a US-mediated ceasefire that took effect on April 16 has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade blows in the south, where Israel maintains troops in a self-declared “buffer zone.”
Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Hezbollah had “shown more resilience than many thought possible, but that was not a strategic gain in itself.”
“The only thing that will contain Israel is a comprehensive US-Iran deal,” he said. “Without a deal, there’s going to be a lot of pain for everyone. At best, a hurting stalemate.”
GRAVES FRESHLY DUG, AND QUICKLY FILLED
More than 2,600 people have been killed since March 2, around a fifth of them women, children and medics, Lebanon’s health ministry has reported. Its toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Three sources, two of them Hezbollah officials, said the ministry’s figures do not include many of the group’s casualties. They said several thousand Hezbollah fighters have been killed, though the group does not have the full picture yet.
In a statement to Reuters, Hezbollah’s media office denied the figures cited by the sources, and that the numbers published by Lebanon’s health ministry included its members killed in Israeli strikes.
One source, a Hezbollah commander, said scores of fighters had gone to the frontline towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiyam intending to fight to the death. Their bodies have yet to be recovered.
In the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, more than two dozen freshly dug graves were quickly filled with fighters’ bodies in the days after the ceasefire took hold. Simple marble tombstones identify some as commanders, others as fighters.
In one southern village alone, Yater, the council recorded the deaths of 34 Hezbollah fighters.
Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim community has borne the brunt of Israel’s attacks, forced to flee into Christian, Druze and other areas, where many blame Hezbollah for starting the war.
Israel has been entrenching its hold over a security zone stretching as far as 10 km (6 miles) into Lebanon and demolishing villages, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas.
An Israeli government official said Hezbollah had abrogated the November 2024 ceasefire by firing on Israeli citizens on March 2. The threat to northern Israel would be eradicated, the official said, adding thousands of Hezbollah militants had been killed, and Israel was steadily destroying the group’s infrastructure.
The Israeli military says Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since March 2. Israel has announced 17 soldiers killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
Citing ongoing Israeli strikes, Hezbollah has called the April ceasefire meaningless and continued to attack.
IRAN ‘WILL NOT SELL’ THEIR FRIENDS
A diplomat who has contact with Hezbollah described its decision to enter the war as a big gamble and a survival strategy, saying it felt it needed to be part of the problem so it could be part of an eventual regional solution.
It has yet to be seen if the gamble will pay off.
Tehran has demanded that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah be included in any deal on the wider war. But US President Donald Trump said last month that any deal Washington reaches with Tehran “is in no way subject to Lebanon.”
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Tahir Andrabi, referred Reuters to an April 16 statement in which he said peace in Lebanon was essential to the talks it is mediating between the U.S. and Iran.
A Western official said they saw a possibility the US and Iran might eventually reach a settlement that does not address the war in Lebanon.
Asked about this, the US State Department, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva and Lebanon’s government did not immediately comment.
Hezbollah’s Moussawi said a ceasefire in Lebanon continues to be a top priority for Iran, adding Tehran shares Lebanon’s objectives, including that Israel halt attacks and withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah has “full trust in Iran – that the Iranians will not sell their own friends”, he said.
The State Department referred Reuters to an April 27 interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio did with Fox News, in which he said Israel had a right to defend itself against Hezbollah’s attacks, and that he didn’t think Israel wanted to maintain its buffer zone in Lebanon indefinitely.
The United States has urged Israel “to make sure their responses are proportional and targeted,” he said.
When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah’s disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.
Hezbollah has ruled out disarmament, saying the matter of its weapons is a topic for a national dialogue. Any move by Lebanon to disarm the group by force would risk igniting conflict in a country shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have sought Hezbollah’s peaceful disarmament since last year. On March 2, the government banned the group’s military activities.
Hezbollah has demanded the government cancel that decision and end its direct talks with Israel.
Lebanese officials have told Reuters they believe direct talks with Israel under the auspices of the US are the best way to secure a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, as only Washington has enough leverage with Israel to achieve those aims.
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US President Trump Tells Israeli Media: ‘I Studied Iran’s New Proposal, It Is Not Acceptable to Me’
US President Donald Trump arrives to award the medal of honor to Master Sgt. Roderick ‘Roddie’ W. Edmonds, Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 02 March 2026.
US President Donald Trump said he has reviewed Iran’s latest proposal and described it as “unacceptable” in an interview with Israeli broadcaster Kan News on Sunday. Trump added that ongoing efforts related to the conflict are “progressing very well,” without providing further details. He also renewed his call for clemency for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that Israel needs a leader focused on wartime priorities rather than legal matters.
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Israel Court Extends Detention of Gaza Flotilla Activists
Activist Saif Abu Keshek, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla detained by Israel, sits at a magistrate’s court for a detention extension hearing in Ashkelon, southern Israel, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece, their lawyer said on Sunday.
Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday and brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestinian activists aboard the boats were taken to the Greek island of Crete.
A court spokesperson confirmed that their remand had been extended until May 5.
The governments of Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement on Friday calling their detention illegal.
The activists were part of a second Global Sumud flotilla, launched in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. The ships had set sail from Barcelona on April 12.
Israeli authorities requested a four-day extension of their arrest on suspicion of offenses that include assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership in and providing services to a terrorist organization, and the transfer of property for a terrorist organization, said rights group Adalah, which is assisting in the activists’ defense.
Hadeel Abu Salih, the men’s attorney, said that the two deny the allegations. Their arrest was unlawful due to a lack of jurisdiction, she told Reuters at the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court after the hearing, adding that the mission was meant to provide aid to civilians in Gaza, not to any militant group.
Abu Salih said that Abu Keshek and Avila were subjected to violence en route to Israel and kept handcuffed and blindfolded until Thursday morning.
Asked for comment, the Israeli military referred Reuters to the Israeli foreign ministry, which said that staff were compelled to act to stop what it described as violent physical obstruction by Abu Keshek and Avila. All measures taken were lawful, it said.