January 5, 2011

Jews in Germany must stop emphasizing their role as victims and develop their positive Jewish identity, said Dieter Graumann, the new head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Graumann, 60, told the Financial Times Deutschland in an end-of-the-year interview that while it is important to remember the Holocaust, Jews should not merely be seen as reminders of Germany\’s duty to never forget. Graumann, the first non-survivor to head the umbrella organization representing Jewry in Germany, was elected in November. He succeeds Charlotte Knobloch, who declined to run again. Some critics had said Knobloch, who survived the war in hiding, focused too much on negativity in her four years in office.