Germany's Jewish Watchdog

When Kurt Georg Kiesinger was first proposed as German Chancellor, much of the world's press expressed shock that a man with a Nazi past could be considered for the post. Kiesinger answered the attacks by citing the enthusiastic support he received from Germany's only nationwide Jewish news paper, Allgemeine Unabhangige Judische Wochenzeitung (General Independent Jewish Weekly). Emphasizing that he had been an inactive, reluctant party member, he referred doubters to the paper's editor. "Ask my friend Karl Marx," he said.

Marx (no kin), who died this month at 69, was happy to say that Kiesinger was indeed a close and trusted friend. The paper that Marx founded in 1946 has been on intimate terms with top Bonn politicians since the establishment of the West German Republic. It wields an influence far beyond its 50,000 circulation, most of which goes to non-Jewish readers. The Jewish Weekly has not only served as the uncontested voice of Germany's diminished Jewish population of 30,000 (from a prewar 500,000), it has also played a major role in shaping German policies. It was instrumental in persuading Konrad Adenauer to make financial restitution to the Jews and establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel.

Hell-Bent Dilemmas. Amid the rubble of World War II, the Weekly began as one of countless Jewish bulletins providing information on people in refugee camps. As the Jews left Germany, the refugee sheets disappeared--except for one which was taken over by Marx, a German-Jewish journalist who had spent the war in England and had now returned. A combat veteran of World War I and an ardent German nationalist, Marx had a clear goal in mind. "From the first," he said, "I wanted to re-ignite Jewish life in Germany."

The paper helped restore a sense of community to scattered Jews still left in Germany. It sponsored Jewish self-help societies, organized homes for children and the aged. Avoiding general news treated by the rest of the German press, the Weekly concentrated on news of Jews and became a consistent champion of Israel. Above all, the paper has addressed itself to the dilemmas of Jews living in a nation that not so long ago was hell-bent on exterminating them.

Necessary Anti-Semitism. The Weekly has done nothing to play down its Jewishness. It never hesitates to point out bona fide Nazis who have been given important public office, and it has helped cause 23 of them to be removed. It was among the first newspapers to alert the nation to the growing danger of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party. Nevertheless, the Weekly is often at odds with Jewish opinion abroad. It came to the defense of Adenauer's aide, Hans Globke, when Jews elsewhere were clamoring for his resignation. Though Globke had helped draw up the regulations depriving German Jews of citizenship, the paper claimed that he had in fact saved many Jewish lives. While the Weekly diligently reports all acts of anti-Semitism in Germany, it does not take them very seriously. "If there would be no more anti-Semitism in Germany," Marx once wrote, "I would be highly suspicious. A country cannot so easily dissolve its connection with its past."

Now that Marx is gone, his journalist wife Lilli, 45, has assumed complete ownership. Editor in Chief Hermann Levy, 56, who supervises a 24-man staff, worked with Marx for 17 years. Moreover, the Weekly is making a tidy profit, and its circulation continues to grow at a considerably faster rate than the Jewish community. The paper will no doubt maintain its power because it has proved to be as important to Germany as it has been to the Jewish community. "We Germans need a watchdog for our democracy," says Axel Springer, the nation's biggest press lord. "That is exactly what the Jewish Weekly is."

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