Careful Beauties Ahead

Tuvia Tenenbom, son and grandson of ultra-Orthodox rabbis, left the fold while a very young man. Decades later he comes back, living for over a year in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, arguably the most authentic ultra-Orthodox community anywhere in the world.

Tenenbom, a bestselling author of many books, wanted to know how the Orthodox culture and way of life had changed, if it had, and how restrictive it is these days in an increasingly restrictive world outside of it. To answer this question, and many others, he became one of them again, doing what they do: praying with them at synagogues and studying with them at yeshivas, eating with them, singing with them, joining them for shabbat meals, driving with them to the graves of their holy rabbis, chatting with their spiritual leaders, the rebbes, and all the while speaking God’s language, Yiddish. In time he gained their trust, people opened to him, and their world of faith revealed itself in all its fascination and contradictions.

This book is a spiritual journey to the world of faith, packed with Jewish humor, Jewish fears, Jewish wisdom, and Jewish traditions.

Tuvia Tenenbom is a Spiegel and Haaretz best-selling author, journalist, dramatist, and the founder of the Jewish Theater of New York. Tuvia 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). In 2003 Germany's most presigious newspaper Die Zeit named Tuvia Tenenbom and Prof. Harold Bloom “the best minds” in America.

Tuvia is the author of the Spiegel Top-10 Best Seller Allein unter Deutschen (I Sleep in Hitler's Room in English), and the #1 Best Seller in Israel Catch the Jew!