The editorial team of Jüdische Allgemeine has been awarded the Tacheles Prize in recognition of its contribution to Jewish life in Germany.
The award was presented in Berlin by the Jewish organisation WerteInitiative to the weekly newspaper, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
“We are honouring them first and foremost because they produce outstanding journalism,” said Elio Adler, chairman of the organisation. He added that the prize also recognises people who “speak plainly, provide context, challenge misconceptions, and give courage to the Jewish community”.
According to Helge Fuhst, who delivered the laudatory speech, the newspaper plays a crucial role in making Jewish life visible in Germany. “Anyone who believes the newspaper deals exclusively with Israel and antisemitism simply has not read it,” he said. He argued that Germany’s culture of remembrance can only remain meaningful if it is connected to vibrant and active Jewish life in the present.
The editor-in-chief of the Jüdische Allgemeine, Philipp Peyman Engel, said he was deeply moved by the award and described it as both an honour and a responsibility.
“Antisemitism has reached a level that poses serious challenges to Jewish life in Germany,” Engel said during the ceremony. “We are now more called upon than ever to fulfil our journalistic mission.”
He also warned that, in his view, “the poison of Hamas propaganda has long since reached parts of the press and politics”, while thousands of demonstrators on the streets were able to disguise calls for the destruction of Israel as merely “pro-Palestinian”.
At the same time, Engel stressed that criticism of Israel remains legitimate. “There are very many reasons to defend Israel,” he said, “but naturally there are also reasons to criticise the Israeli government and military in the strongest possible terms.”
Prior to the ceremony, Engel had already commented on the significance of the prize in an interview with the Catholic News Agency. “This award means an enormous amount to the Jüdische Allgemeine and to me personally because it comes from the heart of the Jewish community in Germany,” he said. According to Engel, readers frequently tell the newspaper: “Thank God you exist — you are our anchor and, even more than before 7 October 2023, our journalistic home.”
Reflecting on the praise from WerteInitiative, Engel argued that speaking plainly is essential in journalism. “Clarity is not an end in itself,” he said, “but it is necessary in order to make complex issues genuinely understandable.” Referring to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, he added: “What can be said at all can be said clearly.”
Engel also expressed concern that many media outlets today avoid taking clear positions for fear of criticism, preferring compromise and cautious language instead.
Following the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023, the newspaper briefly experienced a wave of solidarity and support, Engel noted. However, he suggested that such support has since faded. Because of its reporting on Israel — which he described as balanced, open-minded, but not uncritical — the newspaper is no longer considered “worthy of awards” by some in an increasingly anti-Israel public climate.
“That makes this honour all the more meaningful,” he said.
Today, nearly two dozen editors, foreign correspondents, graphic designers, and assistants work for the Jüdische Allgemeine, the only Jewish weekly newspaper published in the German-speaking world. Since 1999, the newspaper has been based in Berlin. Last year’s Tacheles Prize was awarded to the Jüdische Studierendenunion Deutschland.
