It is with great concern that the Jewish association WerteInitiative is observing the current attacks by the author Deborah Feldman on Philipp Peyman Engel, the editor-in-chief of the Jüdische Allgemeine. In an article in the magazine “Weltbühne” as well as in several statements on social media, Ms Feldman repeatedly and without any basis calls Mr Engel’s Jewish identity into question. These claims are not only false, but defamatory. The Jewish origin of Philipp Peyman Engel and his mother is clearly documented, and Ms Feldman was demonstrably informed of this before her publication. Nevertheless she continues to spread unsubstantiated doubts – evidently in an effort to delegitimise one of the most prominent Jewish voices in Germany.
It is not the first time that Ms Feldman has proceeded with personal attacks against people who hold a different position from her own and has questioned their Jewish identity. With this current campaign too she crosses a line: she makes use of the dangerous practice of publicly disputing Jewish identity – and in doing so feeds mistrust, contributes to division within the Jewish community and thus to the weakening of the majority Jewish positions in Germany. That the “Weltbühne” decided to give this author a platform was a deliberate decision, which we condemn in the strongest possible terms.
Philipp Peyman Engel stands for a clear, liberal and well-grounded voice within the Jewish community. Almost all Jewish citizens of Germany recognise themselves in his positions. The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany), as publisher of the Jüdische Allgemeine, has made its unreserved support for Mr Engel clear – a strong and, unfortunately, necessary signal.
The WerteInitiative calls on all actors in public life to take a clear stand against this kind of defamation. Anyone who claims to speak in the name of tolerance and diversity must not at the same time make those who think differently the target of personal denigration. Jewish identity is not a political plaything
