American Jews Reclaim German Citizenship | DW News

Jan 29, 2026 | Once unthinkable: At 103, Holocaust survivor Ruth Gruenthal has reclaimed the German citizenship the Nazi regime stripped from her because she was Jewish. After surviving Nazi persecution and rebuilding her life in the U.S., Ruth became a psychotherapist and raised a family spanning four generations — many of whom have now also reclaimed German citizenship.

Born in Hamburg in 1922, imprisoned in France, and forced to flee Nazi persecution as a teenager, Ruth rebuilt her life in the United States, where she lived for decades. But recent political developments, rising antisemitism, and fears of growing authoritarianism in the U.S. have shaken her sense of security.

Ruth is not alone. An increasing number of Jewish Americans with family histories shaped by the Holocaust are applying to restore German citizenship — not necessarily to leave, but to have a safeguard: the option to move to Germany should conditions in the United States deteriorate further.

Germany allows victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants to reclaim citizenship that was deliberately taken from them. In New York alone, applications have more than doubled in recent years.

Jewish Viewers Find a Refuge in Fox News

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The network’s unflinching support for Israel in its fight against Hamas has put the conservative network in the good graces of many Jews who see other coverage of Israel as biased.

“Fox and Friends” interviewed people at the Second Avenue Deli in Manhattan who were assembled early in the morning before the restaurant’s usual opening time to discuss the Israel-Hamas war. | Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times
Ross Abramson, a software engineer and recent New York University graduate, had a fairly conventional news diet until recently. He regularly checked his phone for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And as a Jew with an interest in Israel, he would browse a handful of outlets like The Times of Israel.

Then the brutal Hamas-led attack on Israel happened on Oct. 7, and Mr. Abramson found himself turning to an outlet he said he didn’t rely on much before: Fox News.

“Did I watch it religiously before? No,” he said, adding that he found Fox’s reporting and commentary on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “less antagonistic for sure” than that of other news organizations. “You don’t feel as attacked,” Mr. Abramson said.

Fox News, long a preferred source of news for the right, has lately become an information refuge for American Jews who believe that the mainstream media has been too hostile to Israel.

It’s somewhat of an improbable alliance. Jews overwhelmingly identify as Democrats. And as the Republican Party came to embrace a more populist brand of politics that vilifies “globalist” corporate interests and wealthy liberal businessmen like George Soros — something many see as coded antisemitism — Fox News hosts and guests promoted those views.

But more than any of the other major cable news channels — and perhaps more than any other major American media outlet — Fox News has wrapped itself in the Israeli flag in the weeks since the Hamas attack. Its coverage tends to emphasize the radical and antisemitic elements of the pro-Palestinian opposition, particularly on college campuses, while playing down the civilian casualties from Israeli strikes. » | Jeremy W. Peters | Friday, November 3, 2023

Al Jazeera Correspondent: Identity and Exile

Al Jazeera's Matthew Cassel examines why so many American Jews defend Israeli policies regardless of the issue or cost.