October 14, 2008 --
THE Jewish Theater of New York, which gets in trouble all the time with its incendiary shows, has another hot potato on the way. Tuvia Tenenbom's "Mountain Jews," debuting Nov. 9, is about a Brooklyn Orthodox Jew named Isaac, who schleps his "beautiful, Kosher American" bride to a sacred Israeli mountain to consummate their marriage, only to be foiled when she insists on eating rugelach all night. Then, a prophet named Muhammad shows up to declare that unless he gets the bride for himself, "my followers will blow themselves up in Gaza, Mali, Detroit, Denmark, Pakistan, Chicago and al-Quds to protect my lost honor." In 2005, Tenenbom caused a stir when he had Howard Stern's statuesque daughter, Emily, appear nude in "Kabalah," incurring the shock jock's wrath. And last year, his play "Last Jew in Europe" had Polish officials blasting its depiction of endemic anti-Semitism in today's Poland.
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