Tuvia Tenenbom (left) with Jibril Rajoub, former head of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventative Security Force, in Ramallah. Behind them is a photo of Yasser Arafat. Photo: Gefen Publishing.

Tuvia Tenenbom

Playwright and journalist 

Tuvia Tenenbom, born in Israel, is a theater director, playwright, author, journalist, essayist and the founding artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York, the only English-speaking Jewish theater in New York City. Tenenbom was called the “founder of a new form of Jewish theatre” by the French Le Monde and a “New Jew” by the Israeli Maariv. He is also an academic, having university degrees in mathematics, computer science, dramatic writing and literature.

He continues to draw attention for his 2014 book “Catch the Jew!” For this page-turner, Tenenbom takes on the persona of a German reporter named “Tobi” and others; under these guises, he conducts interviews in Israel with monks, rabbis, Palestinian and Israeli politicians, tour guides, NGO representatives, soldiers and settlers. 

In the course of numerous interviews, Tenenbom extracts information, sentiments, hidden theories and delusional visions motivating the miscellany of peoples forming present-day Israel.