Tenenbaum will be keynote speaker of B’nai Moshe’s Spectacular Speaker Series.
Congregation B’nai Moshe is welcoming Dr. David Tenenbaum as its keynote speaker of its Spectacular Speaker Series on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the West Bloomfield synagogue.
Tenenbaum has been called the Dreyfuss of our time. The son of a Holocaust survivor and father of four, in 1997 he was falsely accused by the U.S. Army of being an Israeli spy based solely upon antisemitic accusations from co-workers, which the government then covered up under the pretense of national security.
Despite being told by Tenenbaum’s lawyer that the Jewish Sabbath begins an hour before sundown and ends about an hour after sundown Saturday evening, the FBI executed a search warrant in the middle of Shabbat. During the raid of the Tenenbaums’ home, his children’s music and coloring books were seized along with the family’s personal files and computers.
Tenenbaum was suspended from his job, and his program, designed to save warfighters’ lives, was dismantled. The Tenenbaum family was placed under 24-hour surveillance for months in a “game” of psychological warfare. His children were unnecessarily frightened by surveillance vehicles that would slowly drive by as they played outside on their front lawn.
Tenenbaum made the headlines of the local newspapers where he was labeled a spy because the government conveniently “forgot” to seal the search warrant. Media from around the globe were spoon-fed false information that classified materials were hidden throughout his house, including the baby’s bedroom, though no classified materials were ever found because there were none to be found.
Hateful comments were posted about Tenenbaum on white supremacist websites; anonymous phone calls threatened him. He and his family’s lives were in danger.
Tenenbaum’s neighborhood, home to Holocaust survivors and a thriving Orthodox Jewish community, were intimidated in an effort to isolate the family from the community. Members of his community who attempted to help him were visited in the middle of the night by his community’s police department and threatened while others in the small Jewish community were threatened by FBI agents themselves.
After an 18-month investigation, the FBI and Department of Justice admitted there was no evidence that Tenenbaum had done anything wrong.
Tenenbaum will have copies of his book, Accused of Treason – The US Army’s Witch Hunt for a Jewish Spy, available. The Spectacular Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Registration is required at bnaimoshe.org.
Submitted by B’nai Moshe.