Daniel Donskoy

In his own personal way, Daniel Donskoy is committed to self-determination and a new self-understanding of diverse Jewish identity and tolerance. Daniel Donskoy was born in Moscow and grew up in Germany and Israel. As an actor, he has acted in theatre and television productions (including the Netflix series Barbaren and The Crown). He is as well a passionate musician and has made headlines as the host and creative producer of Freitagnacht Jews (Friday Night Jews) —Germany’s first Jewish late night show. For this, he received the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Award) in 2021 and the Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award) in 2022. Guests of the programme are mainly people from the Jewish community invited by Donskoy to participate in a discourse on Jewish identity in Germany. In the second season, he addressed this question in other countries as well, such as Great Britain, Argentina or Turkey. Urbane in his outlook, Donskoy is not concerned with Jewishness per se, but rather with a fearless approach to complex topics and what moves people. With Freitagnacht Jews, he has created a space for self-determination and visibility to counter the prevailing symbols of Jewish identity, as well as discourses on antiSemitism and remembrance, with the perspectives of young Jewish people in all their diversity and vitality. With his work, Donskoy seeks not only to entertain, but also to contribute to sharpening our viewpoints. He consistently takes on new professional challenges in order to continuously expand his own perspectives and free himself from firmly entrenched perceptions.