He’s back — the maverick who shookLimmud
TUVIA TENENBOM cares little about what other people think of him.
An Israeli-born journalist, best-selling author, playwright and founder of the Jewish Theatre of New York , he was kicked off a Limmud panel last December after his views sparked complaints from attendees.
Back in Britain this week, he is still smarting. “Limmud is not diverse. People screamed and yelled at me,” he said, adding that he would not return to the conference.
He remains an outspoken maverick. He believes Jews collaborated with the Nazis ahead of the Holocaust and taught Eichmann how to systematically eradicate “their brothers and sisters”.
He describes the majority of Jews across the globe as “self-hating”, and claims German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow Syrian refugees into Germany without a parliamentary vote was “so undemocratic — it was an act of Führership”.
Mr Tenenbom, who was in the UK for a Jewish Book Week, went on to tour campuses across Britain with pro-Israel grassroots group StandWithUs. His conclusion after the Israel Apartheid Week row? That British Jewish students are scared.
“I went to speak at an event in Cambridge University last Thursday, but only 15 people turned up,” he said. “The Jewish students were so scared to publicise the event, they did not tell anyone about it. Why?
“They told me: ‘In Cambridge, all life is good’. They underplay the antisemitism — and this is a Jewish disease. They hate themselves and hide their Jewishness.
“The Jewish people have so much selfhatred — I have never seen this in any other culture.”
He rejects critics who claim his views are right-wing in the extreme.
“I am not right-wing, I am a liberal. If you support Israel, that makes you rightwing? It’s so f***ed up,” he said.
“If you think Israel is a great country that does not make you right-wing.”
He added: “It’s the same with refugees. There is no reasonable voice against them. If you stand against them, you are considered a racist.”
Born to Holocaust survivor parents, Mr Tenenbom, was raised in an antiZionist family in Bnei Brak, an ultraOrthodox city east of Tel Aviv. He never watched television, listened to the radio or went to the cinema.
His father Rabbi Akiva Tenenbom and mother Devorah, a teacher, expected him to become a rabbi. But when he was a 14-year-old yeshivah student, he was given a romantic novel by a friend. He said: “Before, every time I passed a woman I kept my head down. After the book, I looked up. I went to a newsstand and bought every newspaper on the second shelf. I went to library and started reading books. I took the library from A to Z. Baby, I read everything. I knew they were cheating me, they weren’t telling me the truth.
“A few months later, a friend told my rabbithatI’dgonetothelibraryandIwas kicked me out of yeshivah. It was crazy.”
He went on to join the Israeli Defence Force as a tank-driver and served in Sinai — a move that brought shame to his family. “None of my friends went to the army and my parents were not happy. They said: ‘What are you doing, you are shaming us’. Orthodox people believe that Israel survives because of their prayers. Bulls***. I think it’s totally false. If someone is coming to rape a woman, are you going to say kaddish or call the police?”
Now, he describes himself as a liberal and a Jew. He said: “I care deeply about Judaism. I dedicated a huge part of my life to it – I continue Jewish culture as much as I can.”
Last year, Mr Tenenbom — who speaks fluent Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, German and English — published his award-winningbook Catch the Jew inwhichhewent undercover to report among the most secretive communities across Israel.
This year, he is set to publish a sequel — about his travels across America. And his conclusion? “The Americans, the Germans, the native Americans all think their culture is the best. What’s wrong with us saying our culture is the best?”
He added: “I still have a feeling that the Jews have been so humiliated and are so self-hating that they need me to help them a bit.”