The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, expressed concern in a letter to ZDF director Thomas Bellut about the station's handling of anti-Semitism.

In the letter, Schuster criticizes the fact that ZDF employs a journalist who “excelled by spreading anti-Semitic and anti-Israel resentment”.

"People who spread anti-Semitism are not allowed to have a place in public service broadcasting," demands the President of the Central Council in a letter dated October 13th.

It's about the author Feyza-Yasmin Ayhan, who writes “Barrys Barbershop” for the ZDF comedy. She had repeatedly expressed herself anti-Semitic on the Internet. For example, the sentence passed down from her is “Do not make media financed by Zionists like much of the country” - with which she quoted a friend. At an event organized by the Hamas-affiliated organization “German Youth for Palestine” on Jerusalem Day 2015, Ayhan said with a view to Israel that “a two-state solution is not fair”. And: "What Israel destroyed in Palestine will not die, and what Israel has built in Palestine will not live for a second." She had also shared a cartoon with a hook-nosed Jew / Israeli, but subsequently regretted it.

The ZDF - as well as the inquiry about the journalist Nemi El-Hassan - treated the FAZ's inquiry in this matter negatively. Feyza-Yasmin Ayhan was involved as a "junior gag writer" in the comedy "Barrys Barbershop", it said. The series has "no connection points in terms of content for which the author is currently being criticized". It goes without saying that “there is no place in the ZDF program for anti-Semitic, discriminatory and racist content”. Ayhan had "taken a position from the production company on their statements from 2015, classified them and credibly distanced themselves from anti-Semitism".

Central Council President Schuster emphasized that as the “fourth power” in the state, the press has a special and outstanding task.

"This is why journalists bear responsibility and are seen as role models for many people as soon as they appear in public."