Tuvia Tenenbom
By Tuvia Tenenbom
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Culture Everything He Wanted To Know About Life Among the Ex-Orthodox
Well before sunset on Friday, as Sabbath is about to start in the holy city of Jerusalem, the central bus station closes its doors to travelers. The last buses have long since departed and no bus seems to be coming. Even the taxis have gone. At the taxi station’s office a man sits talking on…
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Culture In Search of the Bibi Haters in Israel
Ten young people, more or less, were congregating in front Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence late on a Saturday night and repeatedly shouting, “Bibi, resign! Bibi, resign! Bibi, resign!” Bibi didn’t seem to be here; in any case, he wasn’t answering. It was August, during the height of the conflict, and the young people here were ultra-rightists,…
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Culture Living Under the Iron Dome
The Middle East conflict: No doubt you have heard this phrase at least a thousand and one times, and so have I. The conflict, as you probably heard over a thousand times too, is the result of settlements. And now that rockets are flying over Israel, I’ve decided to go to the settlements to check…
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Culture My Hunt for the Cossacks in Ukraine
For no particular reason, I find myself attending a service in a Budapest church that is rumored to be associated with the far-right Jobbik party. There’s no cross in this church, only flags, and quite many of them, depicting Hungary in various historical stages. Some of the flags contain the so-called Árpád stripes, which opponents…
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Culture A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the Rolling Stones Concert
On a third floor balcony across the street from me in central Jerusalem, a strange ceremony is taking place. On one side of the balcony stands a heavy-set religious man with a an oversized white dress and a huge black skullcap, and on the other side an attractive young blond woman, dressed in colorful clothes,…
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Culture There’s Something Rotten in Akko (and It’s Not the Falafel)
Akko’s Old City, many people told me, is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, but I never found the time to go there. At least not until today, when I decided that it’s time I finally heed their advice. I don’t know anybody in Akko — Old City or New — which…
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Culture Israel’s Protest Queen Daphni Leef Isn’t Prime Minister — Yet
In summer of 2011, Daphni Leef’s apartment lease expired but she failed to find a new, affordable rental. Forced to leave her abode, Daphni pitched a tent on the luxurious Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, igniting a social protest that eventually saw hundreds of thousands of Israelis taking over streets all over the land, pitching…
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Culture The Bedouin Zionist Who Keeps Israel Safe
For days on end I have spent my time with countless Bedouins in the Negev, brought there by various NGO activists who wanted me to see how badly the Bedouins are treated by the Israeli Jews, and now I feel it’s time I meet a Bedouin who loves to represent himself, and his people, without…
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