Who is a Jew? Will the "Aryan certificate" now be followed by the obligation for Jews to provide proof?

There are plenty of Jews in costume. They only pretend to be Jewish. Apparently, they hope to gain advantages from this. This is, from a universal historical perspective as well as from a current political perspective, highly naive and uninformed, because, to put it mildly, being Jewish has never been all that comfortable. There's no danger of a new Holocaust, but the current global tsunami of anti-Semitism is certainly not subject to entertainment tax for Jews.

Not to forget: Contrary to what anti-Semites like to claim, there never has been and never will be a unified Jewish opinion. Quite the opposite: we have known (internal) Jewish wars since time immemorial. Whether real or wars of words. In ancient times, the kingdoms of Judea and Israel fought each other; in Roman-occupied Judea, the Jews fought against the Roman occupiers on the one hand, and among themselves on the other.

One cannot claim that Orthodox and liberal Jews are of one heart and one soul. A popular accusation among Orthodox Jews, who are also at odds among themselves, against liberal Jews: They are not Jewish at all. Attack is the best defense. Not only defense, this attack is directed against the enemy's being and identity – and violates human dignity, which, in Germany, is guaranteed by Article 1 of the Basic Law.

Historically speaking, it's nothing new under the sun when Jewish journalist Deborah Feldman accuses Philipp Peyman Engel, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper "Jüdische Allgemeine," of not being Jewish. It's also hardly surprising or new that Deborah Feldman polemicizes against Jewish institutions, individuals, and even the State of Israel. Many Jews and non-Jews call her a scandalmonger and therefore ignore her. The repetitive scandal bores even the scandal-hungry public. And not just in Germany.

However, if a Jewish representative is not (or is not) Jewish, this inflation effect does not apply. That would be similar to a pope who is not a Catholic. Consequently, the media pounces on news of this kind. Ms. Feldman likely expected this, and her calculations paid off.

There were certainly good reasons why this plan worked. However, from a technical and journalistic perspective, the reporting was largely completely unacceptable. The unproven allegations were quoted extensively as theories without any prior fact-checking. Valid documents verifiably issued by Orthodox rabbis were presented without comment as counter-theses.

In plain language: lies and their watertight exposure were treated as equal. A representative of a news agency went so far as to suggest that since Engel had sent copies of the rabbinical documents, a forgery was possible.

Even non-Jews can easily determine: Every child born to a Jewish mother is Jewish. Journalists could have learned that Engels was Jewish both in Engels' mother's hometown and in Engels's places of residence—Berlin and Zurich—as well as from the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference.

Deborah Feldman has – impressively – liberated herself from New York's extreme Jewish orthodoxy. And apparently – under seemingly liberal, anti-Orthodox auspices – not after all, because she, of all people, should know that children of Jewish mothers are Jewish from birth.

The Nazis demanded "certificate of Aryan identity." Do Ms. Feldman and the journalists who take her nonsense seriously and uncritically report it want to introduce a "certificate of Jewish identity"?

The journalist Michael Wolffsohn is the author of the books "A Different Jewish World History" and "Hostile Proximity: Of Jews, Christians, and Muslims."