Seligmann's goal is to overcome "entrenched stereotypes" of the kind that prevail in the United States, where Jewish life in Germany is reduced to Nazis, anti-semitism and the Holocaust, he told the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

With his new publication, Jewish Voice from Germany, Seligmann wants to change the prevailing perception. "Almost seventy years after the end of National Socialism, we want to demonstrate that Germany is experiencing a renaissance (of German-Jewish life)," he said.

While the paper does not intend to whitewash what happened during the Nazi era, it will demonstrate that "there is more to the 2000-year German-Jewish history than the holocaust."

More than half a million Jews lived in Germany before the persecution began in the mid-1930s. When the war was over, some 25,000 were left. Today German Jewish communities in Germany have an estimated 106,000 members. 

Seligmann is the author of such books as Rubinsteins Versteigerung (Rubinsteins Auction) and Der Musterjude (The Token Jew). Both novels are about the role of Jews in post-war Germany.

For the time being, the editorial offices occupy two rooms in Seligmann's spacious apartment in Berlin's exclusive Wilmersdorf section. Financed by advertising, the paper will appear quarterly free of charge. 

Seligmann is an experienced newspaper man. In the mid-eighties he was managing editor of the Jüdische Zeitung (Jewish Nespaper), but, according to Tagesspiegel, was forced out two years later for being too critical of the Jewish community that financed it.

His  Jewish Voice from Germany intends to be independent politically and editorially und does not see itself as a competitor to the Jüdische Allgemeine published by the official Central Council of Jews in Germany.

Most of the initial 30,000 copies will be distributed in the United States with the help of the Manhattan-based Leo Baeck Institute.

Conincidentally, the Institute honored German artist Anselm Kiefer at a gala event Monday night at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York (see our Germericana column).

The 66-year old artist has relentlessly focussed on Germany's Nazi and pre-unification past. In this respect, some critics are wondering about his relevance today. It makes Seligmann's paper all the more relevant.