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Jewish Author Finds Joy and Love in Book Exploring Hasidic Community in Israel
Tuvia Tenenbom has gone undercover to find out people’s real opinions about Jews in Germany, and also in Israel.
But for his new intriguing book, Careful, Beauties Ahead! My Year With the Ultra-Orthodox, the jovial journalist went to the Israeli town of Mea Shearim under his real identity.
Hasidic Jews have fascinated many for maintaining curls, black hats, black coats, the Yiddish language, and sometimes having insular communities. Tenenbom said that people warned him that Hasidim would throw stones at him. But that wasn’t the case when he spent about a year and a half with different members of the Haredi community in Mea Shearim.
Why did the community allow him to live with them, conduct interviews, and take pictures?
“I did not treat them as aliens or look at them like animals in the zoo,” Tenenbom told me in an interview. “I treated them as human beings. They responded in kind. It helped that I spoke Yiddish and that my great-grandfather was a great rabbi. But they know I’m not religious.”
The book is full of laughs and great scenes, including one where he jokes that he wonders if his egg salad would be poisoned, though he enjoys the food. He includes that there were some signs that said Zionists were not real Jews.
“I found out that was a minority of idiots that did that,” he said. “It was some extreme teenagers.”
He said there was great unity on October 7, and that the whole community prayed for those who were kidnapped.
Tenenbom stayed with numerous families and couples that were products of arranged marriages, known as shidduch. Did he feel that they really loved each other, or had learned “to love each other,” as sung in Fiddler on the Roof?
“I live on the Upper East Side and I’ve never seen love as I have in Mea Shearim,” he said. “I don’t see this kind of love in Manhattan. It doesn’t mean everything is perfect there, but the love there, it was beautiful to see, based on living there for a year and a half and seeing how they behave.”
He said that some people have only “kosher” phones, but he also saw that some had iPhones.
Tenenbom said that had his life unfolded differently, he might have been a rabbi there, as he was religious earlier in his life. He said members of the community told him they were betrayed by journalists in the past, who claimed to like them and then wrote material demonizing them.
“Most people who write books about Haredim don’t even speak Yiddish,” he said. “How can you write a book without knowing their language?
Tenenbom also said he found great humor during his experience.
“I spent my time laughing from morning to evening,” he said. “I came in thinking some might be nasty,” he said. “I have found they are the opposite of bitter people. Many Jews in New York are neurotic. I couldn’t find a neurotic Jew [there].”
Tenenbom, who has been married for many years, said he told the community there that Haredi women were beautiful. He said the people took the compliment without being offended or sensitive.
Different portions of the book have him asking questions you would not expect to be asked, and Tenenbom has the rare combination of knowledge, guts, and flair to write a book that can have elements of critique and respect at the same time.
Tenenbom, the author of Catch The Jew and I Sleep in Hitler’s Room, said it is easy to stereotype people if you only see them in films or in negative news stories, and don’t spend time with them. Known for his suspenders, his love of good food, and his time producing plays at The Triad Theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Careful Beauties Ahead! is his best book yet.
Perhaps the only way to top this for his next book, is if he goes undercover as a college professor at Columbia University.
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post Jewish Author Finds Joy and Love in Book Exploring Hasidic Community in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rubio Heads to Israel Amid Tensions Among US Middle East Allies
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to members of the media, before departing for Israel at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, September 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio headed to Israel on Saturday, amid tensions with fellow US allies in the Middle East over Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to reporters before departure, Rubio reiterated that the US and President Donald Trump were not happy about the strikes.
Rubio said the US relationship with Israel would not be affected, but that he would discuss with the Israelis how the strike would affect Trump’s desire to secure the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, get rid of the terrorists and end the Gaza war.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them. We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” he said.
“There are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once. And there is still the hard work ahead once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people the quality of life that they all want.”
Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain next week.
Hamas still holds 48 hostages, and Qatar has been one of the mediators, along with the US, trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would include the captives’ release.
On Tuesday, Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha. US officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.
The strike on the territory of a close US ally sparked broad condemnation from other Arab states and derailed ceasefire and hostage talks brokered by Qatar.
On Friday, Rubio met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House, underscoring competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip. Later that day, US President Donald Trump held dinner with the prime minister in New York.
Rubio’s trip comes ahead of high-level meetings at the United Nations in New York later this month. Countries including France and Britain are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, a move opposed by Israel.
Washington says such recognition would bolster Hamas and Rubio has suggested the move could spur the annexation of the West Bank sought by hardline members of the Israeli government.
ON Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, the United Arab Emirates warned that this would cross a red line and undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that normalized UAE-Israel relations in 2020.
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Netanyahu Posts Message Appearing to Confirm Hamas Leaders Survived Doha Strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a statement posted to social media on Saturday evening, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Qatar-based leadership of Hamas, reiterating that the jihadist group had to regard for the lives of Gazans and represented an obstacle to ending the war and releasing the Israelis it held hostage.
The wording of Netanyahu’s message appeared to confirm that the strike targeting the Hamas leaders in Doha was not crowned with success.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” wrote Netanyahu. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.” He added that “Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
Israel is yet to officially comment on the result of the strike, which has incurred widespread international criticism.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.