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Catch the Jew! recounts the adventures of Tuvia Tenenbom, who wanders around Israel of our time calling himself “Tobi the German.” In the course of numerous interviews Tuvia extracts information, sentiments, hidden theories and delusional visions motivating the miscellany of peoples forming the present-day Holy Land. Does Palestinian wife number one hate the Jews more than she hates wife number two? Who does a young German tourist hate more, her dead Nazi grandpa or the just-born Jewish baby? Who finances cash-rich NGOs pursuing a Judenrein Israel? Who sets Palestinian olive groves on fire and why? What do you see from a Piper Cherokee above a Bedu camp? Who are the flaming feminists who sacrifice their lives for the rights of polygamists? Whose land is this, anyway? In the course of his seven-months journey Tobi the German discovers Syrian flags growing inside apples, she-asses who used to be men, five-star refugee camps, flying prophets, cash-loving guardians of the poor, masturbating monks in eternal love of Palestinians, human rights activists in eternal hatred of Jews, cash-rich rabbis without congregations, families growing in cemeteries – among many others. Catch the Jew!, the most humorous composition on the Middle East to date, is a polyglot spin around a cultural miscegenation in a very small space. However, its never-daunted author finds that with labneh, strudel, olive oil, apple pie, kebab, rugelach, hummus and schnitzel, a happy tummy can bear us through even the most appalling matters. Except the conclusion.
Tuvia Tenenbom is a best-selling author, journalist, dramatist, and the founder of the Jewish Theater of New York. He studied for his doctorate in English literature at St. John s University, 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 as theater of integrity, inquiry and chutzpah. Tuvia's articles and essays have been published in leading Western media, including Die Zeit of Germany (in which he has a semi-monthly column), Corriere della Sera of Italy, Yedioth Ahronoth of Israel, and the American Fox News and Forward. He is the author of the Spiegel Top-10 Best Seller Allein unter Deutschen (I Sleep in Hitler's Room in English), and the number one best seller in Israel Catch the Jew!
BindingPaperback
PublisherGefen_Publishing_House
Pages484
Published2015
ISBN-139789652297983
Weight730 g
“Those interested in the Middle East conflict gain an entirely new, surprising, and often disturbing insider’s perspective of just how unlikely peace really is, in Tenenbom’s remarkable six-month account of his journey to all corners of the Holy Land.… His riveting tale, chock full of unbelievable and hilarious encounters, is highly engaging and emotional, eminently readable, brutally honest, and likely the most uncensored and eye-opening report readers will see.”
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Catch the Jew! is a very serious book. It will entertain you while it will disturb you.”
-Abe Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League
“One of the funniest books I’ve read in years – and one of the most heartbreaking.”
-Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute
“If you want to understand why there is no peace in the Holy Land… you owe it to yourself to read Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbom.… In this volume full of personal observations, revealing interviews, and Swiftian satire, Tenenbom offers deeper insights into the fundamental realities of the Middle East conflict… than decades of reporting by media outlets such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Israel’s Haaretz.”
-Fred Siegel and Sol Stern, City Journal