Georg Kareski
{{Short description|German banker (1878–1947)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
Georg Kareski (21 October 1878 – 2 or 3 August 1947) was a German banker and Jewish Revisionist Zionist activist known for publicly defending the Nuremberg Laws in an interview published in the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff in 1935.
Kareski was born in Posen (Poznań), ruled by the German Empire on 21 October 1878.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Archiv Bibliographia Judaica – Deutschsprachiges Judentum Online|entry=Kareski, Georg|url=https://www.degruyter.com/database/ABJ/entry/abj.9172/html?lang=en|date=2021}}
In 1933, Revisionist Zionism in Germany was marginal; the Staatszionistische Organisation which was formed in 1933 was not a member either of the German Zionist umbrella organization or the international Revisionist Zionist movement.{{cite journal |last1=Nicosia |first1=F. R. |title=Revisionist Zionism in Germany (II): Georg Kareski and the Staatszionistische Organisation, 1933–1938 |journal=The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook |date=1 January 1987 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=231–267 |doi=10.1093/leobaeck/32.1.231 |url=https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article-abstract/32/1/231/1011043?redirectedFrom=fulltext}} Kareski was one of the few German Jews who saw the Nazi revolution as an opportunity.{{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Herbert S. |title=A Jewish Collaborator in Nazi Germany: The Strange Career of Georg Kareski, 1933–37 |journal=Central European History |date=September 1975 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=251–281 |doi=10.1017/S0008938900017933}} In 1937, he traveled to Palestine where he was accosted by Jews who considered him a traitor, spy, and informer.
In 1935, Kareski was appointed director of the Reich Federation of Jewish Cultural Unions. On 23 December 1935, an interview with him was published in the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff. Although he did not comment on the denial of citizenship to German Jews, Kareski said that the Nuremberg Laws—which forbade marriage and sexual relationship between Jews and "people of German blood"—were necessary to preserve the integrity of the Jewish race.{{cite journal |last1=Cockerill |first1=Matthew Ghobrial |title=Did the Nazis plan to extend the final solution beyond Europe? Assessing the evidence |journal=Holocaust Studies |date=2 July 2024 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=534–557 |doi=10.1080/17504902.2024.2326262|doi-access=free }}{{cite web |title=Kareski Quoted by Angriff As Justifying Nuremberg Laws |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/kareski-quoted-by-angriff-as-justifying-nuremberg-laws |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |access-date=22 June 2024 |date=20 March 2015}} Although the content of the interview did not differ dramatically from the positions that other German Zionists had taken in attempted accommodation with the Nazi regime, Kareski's interview attracted more attention because of its publication in a Nazi newspaper and threats against Jews who differed from his views.
As a result of his roles in Germany, Zionist Germans repudiated him and severely criticized his actions, including a campaign by the Hitachduch Olej Germania (HOG), linked to the Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland that already expelled Kareski from their ranks in 1933. During his visit to Mandatory Palestine in 1937, before his evetual migration, the HOG published a series of accusation that included his collaboration and use of Nazi institutions to force himself on the leadership of Jewish organizations in Germany.
He died in Ramat Gan, Palestine, on 2 or 3 August 1947.{{cite news |title=Georg Kareski, Former Head of Berlin Jewish Community, Dies in Palestine |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/georg-kareski-former-head-of-berlin-jewish-community-dies-in-palestine |access-date=22 June 2024 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=20 March 2015}} After his death, some of his admirers wanted to name a street after him in Ramat Gan.