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Michael Kuenne

German TV Host Accused of Antisemitism

Portrait of Haya Schulmann. Photo: Farideh Diehl - Farideh Diehl, CC BY-SA 4.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=141042867
Portrait of Haya Schulmann. Photo: Farideh Diehl - Farideh Diehl, CC BY-SA 4.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=141042867

A prominent German-Israeli cybersecurity expert has accused a television host of antisemitic behavior during a live broadcast on Hessischer Rundfunk (HR), a regional network under Germany’s publicly funded ARD umbrella. Professor Haya Schulmann, a leading network and computer security authority at Goethe University Frankfurt, claims that a television host reacted with disgust after learning that her surname has Israeli origins.

The incident, which has sparked widespread condemnation, allegedly occurred during the technical preparation for Hallo Hessen, a daily talk show on HR.

According to Schulmann, the host, whom she described as being of Turkish descent, was making small talk before inquiring about her last name. When Schulmann answered “Israel,” she claims the host visibly recoiled, stuck out her tongue, and exclaimed “Bäääääh” – a German expression similar to “Ew.” Schulmann, a professor in cybersecurity at Goethe University, was stunned by the response. Moments later, she was abruptly muted in the video call and excluded from further interaction with the host until the live broadcast began.

“I found it difficult to interpret this as anything other than a blatantly racist and antisemitic reaction,” Schulmann wrote in a detailed LinkedIn post, recounting the event. Her post quickly gained traction, drawing widespread outrage and calls for accountability.

Haya Schulmann’s LinkedIn post detailing the alleged antisemitic incident at Hessischer Rundfunk (HR). The post quickly gained traction, sparking widespread discussion and calls for accountability. (Screenshot)

Professor Haya Schulmann (חיה שולמן, formerly Shulman) is a leading cybersecurity researcher specializing in network security, cryptography, and cyber defense. Born in Israel, she earned her Master’s degree in computer science from Bar-Ilan University in 2009 and completed a PhD in 2014 with a dissertation on securing domain name systems (DNS). She has held research positions at Verisign, Fraunhofer Institute, and ATHENE, Germany’s National Cybersecurity Research Center. In 2021, she won Germany’s highest cybersecurity award, the Horst Görtz IT Security Prize, for her work on Cache Test.

Following Schulmann’s viral LinkedIn post, HR issued a brief public statement, assuring an investigation:

“Dear Haya Schulmann, we have just seen your post. We assure you that we will immediately conduct an investigation into this matter.

However, critics argue that HR’s handling of the situation lacks transparency, fueling broader discussions on antisemitism and bias in Germany’s public media.

In a follow-up post, Schulmann expressed gratitude for the overwhelming support:

“Thank you for all the supportive comments. It really helps to see that intolerance is not tolerated and that you’re not alone when something like this happens. Today’s show was the latest episode of ‘Hallo Hessen’ on HR television. I tried to remain professional despite the incident, but if you watch the broadcast, you can probably see how shaken and distracted I was.

About the Author
Michael Kuenne works as a journalist on antisemitism, extremism, and rising threats to Jewish life. His reporting continually sheds light on the dangers that come from within radical ideologies and institutional complicity, and where Western democracies have failed in confronting the new rise of Jew-hatred with the due urgency it does call for. With hard-hitting commentary and muckraking reporting, Kuenne exposed how the antisemitic narratives shape policymaking, dictate public discourse, and fuel hate toward Israel. His writings have appeared in a number of international media outlets, including The Times of Israel Blogs. Kuenne has become a voice heard for blunt advocacy in regard to Israel's right to self-defense, critiquing ill-conceived humanitarian policies serving only to empower terror, while demanding a moral clarity which seems beyond most Western leaders. With a deep commitment to historical truth, he has covered the resurgence of Holocaust distortion in political rhetoric, the dangerous normalization of antisemitic conspiracies in mainstream culture, and false equivalencies drawn between Israel's actions and the crimes of its enemies. His reporting dismantles sanitized language that whitens the record of extremism and insists on calling out antisemitism-whether from the far right, the far left, or Islamist movements, without fear or hesitation.
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