The Debate Surrounding ‘Fake’ Jews

Abstract

In this chapter, the author explores the controversial issue of ‘fake Jews’—former Soviet citizens who were able to gain entry to Germany as Jewish ‘quota refugees’ by obtaining false identification papers. He explains why German authorities did not want to be seen to be inspecting Jewish identification papers too rigorously, and so passed this responsibility on to Jewish communities, which were often ill-equipped to deal with the large number of new arrivals. The issue erupted in the German press in the mid-1990s in what became known as the Fälschungsdebatte (‘debate about forgeries’). This chapter examines the discourse used in this debate, the responses from Jewish community leaders to the accusations made against them and the overall impact the ‘fakes’ had on Jewish community life.