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Monday, July 29, 2013

Germany Still "Obsessed With Jews" - Tuvia Tenenbom

Writer Tuvia Tenenbom, a Jewish American writer, columnist, and artistic director of The Jewish Theatre of New York, talks about his book "I Sleep in Hitler's Room: an american jew visits germany" and how the majority of Germans are still obsessed with the jews. He also discusses the challenges he had in actually getting the book published, in spite of being invited by a publisher to write about the German people.

Three years ago I was contacted by an editor of Rowohlt, one of the biggest book publishers in Germany. She said she loved my articles in the Zeit, the prestigious German newspaper I’ve been writing for, and would like me to come to Germany for a few months, interview people and write about them “in the same style you write for the Zeit.”

It didn’t take long to convince me and soon enough I showed up in Germany.

Unbelievable landscapes, delicious food, shiny museums, celebrated intellectuals, tireless farmers, sleepless artists, blasphemous zealots, faithful atheists and a highly modern society welcomed me. All I had to do was to befriend everybody.

Germany, I sadly found out, was obsessed with Jews. Even those who claimed to like Jews had very strange thoughts about them. I interviewed people from all walks of life.
The rest here.


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