Tuvia Tenenbaum writes about Israel’s “Second most hated group”

Tuvia Tenenbaum writes about Israel’s “Second most hated group”

Tuvia Tenenbaum is many things. A unique mix of jester and truth-teller, Tenenbaum was born a Haredi Ultra-Orthodox Jew in Bnei Brak but left the fold to serve in the IDF. He transformed into an academic, studying for his doctorate in English literature at St. John’s University. He earned his MFA in playwriting at CUNY-Brooklyn, BS in mathematics and computer science at Touro, and finished his rabbinical studies in Jerusalem. He also studied Christianity and Islam in Israel and New York, as well as journalism, acting, theater, and finance at NYU. Tuvia was named one of the best minds in America by Germany’s prestigious Die Zeit, and his theatrical work was hailed by the New York Times as irresistibly fascinating and by the Village Voice.

He has written bestseller books in Germany [I Sleep In Hitler’s Room] and the UK [The Taming of the Jew], described his encounters with Israelis and Palestinians [Catch the Jew], and written a critique of American culture [The Lies They Tell].

Tuvia’s methodology is to dwell among his subjects, wandering around and meeting people. He frequently takes on one of his alternate identities custom-tailored to lower the subject’s guard and evoke an honest and revealing response. With such a rich and diverse background, it is impossible to anticipate who he will be. 

When dialoguing with anti-Israel NGOs for his best-selling To Catch the Jew, Tuvia became Toby the German who commiserated with fellow Europeans that were so wracked with guilt for the Holocaust that they poured millions of dollars into “Palestine” to combat the Zionists…who were the true Nazis. When befriending a clueless Palestinian terrorist leader Jibril Rajoub, in the heart of Jericho, Tuvia was nicknamed Abu Ali,  the name that some Palestinians call Adolf Hitler. As a German academic, Toby visits al-Quds University in east Jerusalem, an institution kept alive through European humanitarian largesse, only to discover that scheduled events paid for through European humanitarian largesse never occurred. When sipping espresso with left-wing Israelis in Tel Aviv who claim to love Palestinians and Palestinian culture, Tovia gently reveals the hypocrisy of a demographic that has never met an Arab. 

When faced with a fellow Christian, the supposed descendant of Nazis, the masks came off, and the truth came out. The chubby and smiling Toby could be confided in. Indeed, all of his books described encounters with Jew hatred that proved the most ancient evil is alive and well, thriving everywhere you look, hidden just behind the smiling faces of the most enlightened people who cared so much about world peace and humanitarian causes.. 

But in an unexpected detour, his most recent endeavor is set on dispelling an antisemitic trope. Tuvia returns to the culture of his childhood for a fresh look at the Jews he describes as the “second most hated group in Israel.” Even the book’s name, [Careful Beauties Ahead], contains an unexpected twist. The phrase is a warning used among Haredi men to caution them against immodestly dressed women who may lead them to have impure thoughts. Despite growing up among Haredim, Tuvia spent a year dwelling among the Ultra-Orthodox. 

He was warned by many people not to attempt this. He would surely be shunned or attacked for being an apostate. But the opposite was true. Tuvia discovered an open community that welcomed him with open arms. In what is surely a first, Tuvia was caught off guard, surprised at what he found. For starters, some of the men who studied Torah night and day had somehow found time in between to read his books. Men would approach him, citing page and verse,

“In the first half hour, five people approached me,” he said. “I was amazed to see that the Haredim read my books. It was shocking.”

With new eyes, Tuvia saw the beauty of the community, becoming entranced by the modestly dressed women and mesmerized by the dignity of the men. But more than anything else, Tuvia was enraptured by the food. 

In his book launch at the Begin Center in Jerusalem, Tuvia turned his truth meter outward, focusing on the critics of the Haredim rather than the Haredim themselves. Indeed, he saw the negative image of the Haredim among secular Israelis as a symptom of the sinat chinam, the groundless hatred that led to the destruction of the Jewish Temple, a sin that Tuvia warns is far too prevalent in modern Israeli culture. He pointed to the mass protests (and the pushback) over the judicial reforms. 

“It’s frightening what is going on,” Tuvia said. “They are showing disrespect by pushing the reforms in this way, both sides are showing disrespect.’

And to discover what is the most hated group in Israel, watch the video here.

The post Tuvia Tenenbaum writes about Israel’s “Second most hated group” appeared first on Israel365 News.

Israel in the News