Presentations of The Lies They Tell will start in Israel in September 2016, move to Germany around mid October, under the title Allein unter Amerikanern, and come home to NY in late January 2017. Project initated by Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin.
The USA is the world’s empire and what it does will influence all of us for generations to come. But who are the Americans, the people who make up America?
Tuvia Tenenbom travels through America to find out. He visits megachurches looking for the holy spirit in America, and drives to Indian reservations in search of ancient spirituality. He goes to black ghettos and listens to gang members explain the logic of killing fellow blacks, and he dines with rich whites who profess love of poor blacks. He meets Jews who dedicate day and night in hatred of their brethren, and schmoozes with robbers who teach him the true meaning of love. He flirts with Arab virgins who show him the sweet things of life, and shoots imaginary bears with powerful shotguns and glitzy pistols. He finagles his way into a prison, where skinheads pray, and wanders into the Senate, where the elected Brave reside. He experiments with drugs on American streets, and ponders the deeper meaning of life with rednecks. He sits with monks who throw obscenities at him, and with the homeless who put their trust in him. He mingles with American soldiers who teach him how to invade foreign countries, and he joins intellectual Americans who teach him the nature of mother earth, the goodness of man, and the sadism of the Israeli.
Welcome to the real America, a place you call home but don’t yet know.
"Savage, disturbing, comical ... Tenenbom has again written a book that is unputdownable." The Jerusalem Post
"The Lies They Tell exposes the real America, the one where racism and anti-Semitism lurk just beneath the surface ... Not to worry, Tenenbom knows how to serve his dishes in an easy, palatable manner, which won't allow you to put the book down until it's finished." Israel Hayom
Of course, before you get to the Lies you gotta Catch the Jew!
"Catch the Jew!" now in the USA!
The #1 Best Seller of Israel and the four-month Spiegel Best Seller in Germany has finally arrived in the US of A!
For immediate release
Our artistic director's newest book, the critically acclaimed #1 Best Seller of Israel and the four-month Spiegel Best Seller in Germany, Catch the Jew!, is now available in the USA.
Read it. Watch it.
The Jewish Theater of New York is proudly collaborating with distinguished New Yorkers and NY institutions to present Catch the Jew! as part of the Jewish Theater's "Theater Through Literature" program.
Schedule of presentations in the USA: click HERE.
Overseas presentations: click HERE.
Catch the Jew! recounts the adventures of gonzo journalist and JTNY's artistic director Tuvia Tenenbom, who wanders around Israel and the Palestinian Authority/Palestine for seven months in search of the untold truths in today’s Holy Land. With holy chutzpah, Tuvia boldly goes where no Jew has gone before, at times risking his life as he assumes the identities of “Tobi the German” and even “Abu Ali” in order to probe into the many stories in this strange land and poke holes in all of them.
From the self-hating radicals in Tel Aviv to the self-promoting PLO execs in Ramallah, from the black-clad Haredim of Bet Shemesh to the glowing foreign human rights activists in Beit Hanina, from Jewish settlers and the Christians who come from abroad to toil with them to ardent Jerusalem monks and Bedouins in surprisingly glorious shacks, Tuvia takes on the people of the land, getting to know them and disarming them as he breaks bread and mingles with anyone and everyone.
Does Palestinian wife number one hate the Jews more than she hates wife number two? Who finances cash-rich NGOs pursuing a Judenrein Israel? Who sets Palestinian olive groves on fire and why? What is the emotional gravity that pulls idealistic human rights activists from other countries to Israel – and only to Israel? Who are the flaming feminists who sacrifice their lives for the rights of polygamists? Whose land is this, anyway?
By turns poignant, enraging, and laugh-out-loud funny, this unique travelogue lays bare the intensity of this turbulent land in an unprecedented, eye-opening education, person by person, city by city, and meal by meal. You will never look at Israel the same way again.This critically acclaimed book, originally commissioned by the prestigious Suhrkamp publishing house of Berlin, is presented theatrically on stages in Israel, Germany, Austria and the USA, from September 2014 through June 2015. Presentations in Israel started at Bet Zionei America in Tel Aviv, in a live theater of the Absurd rarely seen in Israel. Performances outside Israel started in Vienna, with a touching and unforgettable performance by the artistic director of the famed Volkstheater in Vienna, Michael Schottenberg. In Germany presentations started at the prestigious Volksbühne theater in Berlin. Presentations in NY started February 19, 2015 @ ISGAP. The Launch of the English edition took place on March 22, 2015 at the Begin Center in Jerusalem.• • •
Watch German TV's report (ARD) HERE. Austrian TV's report (ORF) HERE. Watch Israel TV report (Channel 2) HERE. Watch the post-presentation debate at the prestigious Volksbühne theater in Berlin HERE. Watch debate and presentation at the Bucerius Law School, Hamburg HERE.
For more details, please contact us at TheJTNY@aol.com
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Sample reviews
"Tenenbom's 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)
"No reader of Catch the Jew! can come away having failed to learn many new things about Israelis and Palestinians, two peoples we talk about so much but understand so little." Wall Street Journal
"After I finished rocking with both terror and laughter – I forgot to mention the main point: Tenenbom is extraordinarily funny – insight started to trickle in.
Read what Tenenbom has to tell us, without bias. We don’t have the privilege not to know." Haaretz"Run to your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy . . . I haven't laughed this hard out loud in a long time." Israel Hayom
"Tuvia is curious as a cat, sly as a fox, friendly as a Labrador, and is also a man with seismographic sensitivities." Mida
"What a crazy country. What a great book." Neues Deutschland
"Tenenbom goes where it hurts . . . he wants to know what the reality is, not what we would like the reality to be." Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
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Israel's Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, showing off the Hebrew edition of Catch the Jew!
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For info re our extended program "Redefining Theater Through Literature" please click HERE
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