Jewish organizations in Germany have slammed a prominent leftist daily after it published an op-ed telling the community’s top representative to “just shut up already” following his public statements on the joint Israeli-American military strikes on Iran.

The controversy began after Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, issued a statement on Tuesday in which he backed the military action, expressing hope for the fall of the Iranian regime.

On Wednesday, Susanne Knaul, an editor at the Berlin-based Die Tageszeitung, known as taz, published an opinion piece under the title “Just shut up already.”

In it, she criticized Schuster for his open support of the campaign. “Is this really necessary, many, especially those who are Jewish themselves, are now asking,” she wrote.

Knaul also expressed understanding for the desire to see an end to the Iranian regime, writing that, “No one denies Schuster the right to support the attacks. Whether publicly or privately, most people in Germany will hope that the terror regime in Tehran will soon come to an end.”

But she ultimately concluded that Schuster “should have shown restraint in his function and better left statements of this kind to the Israeli ambassador.”

Schuster had noted that Tehran is “behind numerous attacks on Jewish communities” and argued that without Iranian “terror agents,” Jews in Germany could finally move closer to a “visible life without a protective shield.”

Knaul, who served as the paper’s Middle East correspondent in Israel from 1999 to 2019, also criticized Schuster’s vocal support for Israeli warfare in Gaza, saying he had previously leaned “too far out of the window” with his criticism of the German government’s temporary arms embargo against Israel in August 2025.

Critics are calling the op-ed an attempt to muzzle Jewish voices. The newspaper’s editorial board has since come out in Knaul’s defense.

With an audience of approximately 330,000 readers, the........

© The Times of Israel