Tuvia
Tenenbom Searching for Self
By Dr. Harold Goldmeier
Dr. Harold Goldmeier is an Instructor at Touro University,
Jerusalem, a small business owner, and writes about finance, social, and
political issues. He is a free public speaker for community groups and consults
on matters of commerce and industry. He can be reached at harold.goldmeier@gmail.com.
OVERVIEW
The crisis between the
Ultra-Orthodox and Zionists has the makings of an existential threat to the
Jewish state. My review of Tuvia Tenenbom's new book gives remarkable insight
into the workings of this community. Tuvia explores and uncovers segments of
the Ultra- Orthodox each following their own rabbi. He reveals the good and the
bad, contributions to a civil society and narcissistic gangsterism. Tuvia
focuses on individuals, one on one, as he seeks to revive memories of youth.
Tuvia
Tenenbom’s newly released book in English, Careful Beauties Ahead! My Year
With The Ultra-Orthodox (Gefen Publishing House, 2024) is the latest in his oeuvre of
witty creative nonfiction. The book is a mix of social anthropology and
memoir. Throughout his labyrinthine storytelling,
this reader was captivated by Tuvia’s encounters with clandestine
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects usually viewed as one large community. They are not
all alike. They do not observe Jewish
law alike, share loyalties to the same rabbis, the women are not all Stepford
wives, and some adults live on the brink of walking out of the community.
Tuvia
brashly encounters Ultra-Orthodox men and women on the streets, in their
schools, synagogues, and homes to regenerate his youthful memories. His roots are among the Ultra-Orthodox. Tuvia
was born, raised, and educated as one of them for his first 17 years. He dressed
in black and spent days and nights learning Torah. Tuvia left everything behind
for adventures in the secular world; he forged a life in journalism and
literature, watching the beauties on the streets while fressing in
European and American cafés. Tuvia
achieved the renown and the pleasure he was after. But his fond memories from
Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, home to the Ultra-Orthodox, were indelible.
Now
he tries to go home in search of roots and community. Tuvia immerses himself
for a year among the Ultra-Orthodox. The book is packed with Tuvia’s insights
and revelations. We learn a lot about Tuvia but more about the lives and
organization of the Ultra-Orthodox. Doors open for Tuvia because of his arcanum,
affability, and fluency in ancient Yiddish, the first language of the
Ultra-Orthodox. He finds the people friendly and generally happy with their
lives; their bellies are full of delicious homemade traditional European Jewish
foods made by grateful wives who get pleasure from their roles. Looking back,
Tuvia ruminates, “These kids of Mea Shearim, who sometimes look like tough
kids, are awesomely sweet.”
Know They Enemy
Angry
secularists hate the Ultra-Orthodox but will gain insights from Tuvia’s 551-page
book. Enemies see the Ultra-Orthodox as block voters who portray themselves as
victims of the secularists (Zionists) trying to drive Godliness out of them.
Ultra-Orthodox generally reject modernism, secular education, most technology, and
any language other than old-world Yiddish. Independent thinking is forbidden.
He
explores how some in the community despise the government, the IDF, and the
police. They fear a Satanic cabal is trying to persuade the Ultra-Orthodox to
become secularists by threatening to cut off yeshiva subsidies, force religious
children to spend time on secular studies, speak Hebrew, chastise religious men
to work for a living where they will mix with non-religious people in
workplaces, on trains, and buses and be enticed away from Torah study.
Drafting
Ultra-Orthodox students into the military is to force them to forsake their
Godly ways and beliefs. They would rather die at the hands of Jew haters and
the Zionists if that is God’s decree.
Tuvia
writes, “Jews have been saved from total annihilation, they taught me,” by not
forsaking Yiddish, black and white clothes, keeping the Sabbath, and believing
their rabbis speak with and sometimes holier than God’s word. While not everyone
believes to the extreme of many Ultra-Orthodox that “Zionists are not Jews,”
the larger community acquiesces and remains silent. Extreme believers garner
gravitas and chutzpa from the silent majority who fear for their personal
safety, ex-communication, having their children outcast from schools, and
daughters and wives shunned.
About
130 of Israel’s economists and 73 professors released a letter in May
characterizing Haredim as an existential threat to Israel. Haredim scantily
contribute to the nation’s economy and its military defense. “There are no dogs…And no Progressives” in
this community.
It
is important to understand the Ultra-Orthodox because they hold political sway,
more or less, over the governments of Israel, the U. S., and the UK. They have
extraordinary influence in Russia, Eastern European capitals, and several South
American political machines. Second, Haredim, the fur and
black-hatted, white shirt, black coat, and black suit-wearing men, and their
shadowy, enshrouded women are the fastest growing segment of the Jewish people
in every country.
Are
these the same people Tuvia left behind? Tuvia is amazed four decades later at
the political noise and headlines from the Ultra-Orthodox. They launch street
protests, turn out by the tens of thousands for funerals of their great rabbis,
and are astute at raising millions of shekels to build elaborate houses of
worship, live in splendorous homes, and operate an extensive, worldwide network
of charitable and money-lending organizations. Nefarious acts Tuvia relates
that happen in every community are covered up because “the media in Israel is
very weak” and Haredim “have all the money in the world” to sue.
Takeaway
His
story in Careful Beauties Ahead! is to rejewvinate the sights,
sounds, smells, and religious banter he loved as a child. Nostalgia is a desire
but not enough of a motivator for Tuvia to live permanently among them. His
book is laced with love even as he peels back some ugly and criminal sore spots
given cover by the rabbis.
His
waywardness, i.e., off the derech, was in part due to their sensible
philosophies and arguments that led Ultra-Orthodox “to reach the most
ridiculous of conclusions.” For
instance, as a teen, Tuvia “demanded to know (from his rabbis) why he was not
allowed to look at women.” He was told only infidels look at women. Satan must
be inside him; some sects believe that man’s desires are inspired by the
Satanic wiles of females. One sect allows martial relations once a month,
primarily to satisfy the wives and keep men’s focus on the Torah.
Tuvia’s
greatest accomplishments come forward when he uses his knowledge of Torah and
Talmud and Yiddish to get male and female Haredim to speak with him and
answer his poignant intrusive questions. Quite a feat. But that is meaningless
without Tuvia’s gift of great storytelling.
Despite the headwinds, “98 percent
of Haredim report being satisfied with their lives, higher than any
other segment of the society, and only 11 percent of them say that they feel
lonely…” And this is true of the women as well.
Tuvia
is a Zionist but “The Haredim are my family, whether I want it or not,
whether they want it or not. The umbilical cords of our grandmothers attach us,
and we can’t separate.”
“When I started the journey, I was filled with
memories of the sweet boy I once was and thought he had died long ago, forever
gone. Today, I know a little better. That boy has never gone…” nor is the sense
of community. But now home is in the European cafés and the secular world.
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