Tuvia Tenenbom

Tuvia Tenenbom's latest book, »God Speaks Yiddish - My Year Among Ultra-Orthodox,« is a bestseller in which he provides insight into an equally closed world: the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim. This area is inhabited almost exclusively by ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Tenenbom, born in 1957, grew up there in a German-Jewish-Polish family. With a great deal of humor, he delivers »an equally successful and delightful description of a largely unknown group of people who are often used as a negative, distorted image of 'the Jew' out of ignorance« (Hamburger Abendblatt). Parallel to the book, a documentary film of the same name was also released in 2023. Tenenbom will present excerpts from the film, which will serve as the starting point for a detailed discussion with Kampnagel director Amelie Deuflhard. Tuvia Tenenbom is not only an astute intellectual and journalist with in-depth knowledge of the Middle East, who has studied Islamic studies and is fluent in Arabic, but also a cosmopolitan theater enthusiast: since 1981 he has resided in New York City, where he founded the Jewish Theater of New York 30 years ago.