This article focuses on Jewish and Hebrew press coverage of the German film director Leni Riefenstahl during the 1930s. The Author reveals the public attitude towards Riefenstahl by analyzing news reports about her alleged Jewish descent. Rumors on Riefenstahl’s “Jewish ancestry” and on an affair between her and Adolf Hitler, were spread by prominent figures in the Nazi party in order to defame her and remove her from the close circle around the Fuhrer.

The stories published in Hebrew-speaking newspapers in British Mandate Palestine were based on those from European general and Jewish newspapers that investigated Riefenstahl’s remarkable success in the German film industry. The reports describe Riefenstahl in an antisemitic fashion as an enticing Jewish female who deviously seduces Hitler for her personal interests and that betrays her own people and family. Remarkably, these antisemitic stereotypes are noticeable in the Hebrew translations of reports from the European press. The author deals with the questions: what made the Hebrew newspapers accept these horrific rumors as definite truths, and what can one learn from the attitude of the Yishuv towards “Jewish Riefenstahl”, about German-Jewish relationships in the early years of the Third Reich.