The Bilateral Briefing is a newsletter on German-Israeli relations, covering the political, economic, and social ties between the two countries. We are funded entirely by our subscribers. Our work is guided by the core journalistic values of independence, truthfulness, and rigor. With this newsletter, we also hope to foster greater understanding between Germans and Israelis.
The relationship between Germany and Israel is anything but ordinary. The founding of both the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel is inseparable from Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II and the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Germans. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the two countries are remarkably close.Yet this closeness has always been—and remains—a subject of debate. The Bilateral Briefing also covers the many controversies surrounding German-Israeli relations.
As a subscriber, you’ll receive an interview or analysis on German-Israeli relations every week. Every other week, you’ll also get a concise roundup of everything that mattered for the relationship, along with a look ahead at key upcoming dates and events. Everything we publish is sent straight to your inbox and is also available on our website. Learn more about our subscription options.
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Joshua Schultheis, born in 1992, grew up in Darmstadt, in the German state of Hesse, and studied philosophy, German literature, and education in Berlin. In 2022, he completed a journalism traineeship at Jüdische Allgemeine. He returned there as an editor in July 2024 after a year as Berlin correspondent for WEB.DE/GMX News. His investigative report “Tweets gegen Israel” was nominated for the 2024 Theodor Wolff Prize. In 2025, he spent two months at The Times of Israel in Jerusalem as an Ernst Cramer & Teddy Kollek Fellow. He and co-author Mascha Malburg received the 2026 Georg Stefan Troller Prize for their interview book “Worüber Juden reden: Zehn Gespräche aus Deutschland.” Since July 2026, he has been working as a freelance journalist, writing for publications including Jüdische Allgemeine, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and The Times of Israel.
Tomer Atir was born in 1999 and grew up on a kibbutz in central Israel. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, political science, and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a minor in sustainability studies. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in contemporary German studies. In 2025, he was a guest reporter on the science desk of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung as an Ernst Cramer & Teddy Kollek Fellow. After returning from Germany, he launched “The Envoy to Germany,” a Hebrew-language blog on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook that covers Germany from an Israeli perspective. Before that, he was a senior reporter at Zavit, an Israeli news agency covering science and the environment. He has taken part in several international programs that bring Israelis and Germans together.