Tuvia Tenenbom

Tuvia Tenenbom

Israel, USA

Tuvia Tenenbom is an author, dramatist, journalist, and director, educated in exact sciences, humanities, and religion.

Tuvia Tenenbom is Israeli but has lived in the USA for decades. He was raised in an ultra-Orthodox family but is no longer religious nor political. He is a journalist, theater director, playwright, author, essayist and the founding artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York, the only English-speaking Jewish theater in New York City, where he lives. His biggest readership, however, is in Germany, where he met his wife Isi, 21 years ago.

The real breakthrough in his writing career was the instant success of his first book, I Sleep in Hitler's Room, a psychological „travelogue“ from Germany that details the wide spread of modern anti-Semitism in Europe. Tuvia spent months talking to random people, pretending to be someone else, and even more months working hard to put all his findings into a book. He then repeated the same principle in Israel, resulting in the worldwide bestseller Catch the Jew! Tuvia with his blonde hair and slightly German accent traveled round Israel and, in the course of numerous interviews, he extracted information, sentiments, hidden theories and delusional visions motivating the miscellany of people forming the present-day Holy Land. The role sometimes allowed him access to different kinds of information, particularly from Palestinians and Europeans, who he felt would react better to a non-Jew.

His most recent book, and his sixth so far, is The Rabbi is Here, which became an instant bestseller in Israel, topping all bestseller lists in the country. For the purpose of writing this book, Tuvia and Isi moved to Mea Shearim, the most authentic Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of our time, where they still live.