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Jacob Wallenstein Is the Greatest Science-Fiction Writer to Never Have Lived

JL;DR SUMMARY Shay Azoulay's cleverly devised hoax, involving a fictional science fiction writer named Jacob Wallenstein, is both a tribute to and a commentary on the science fiction genre in Israel. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Israeli LiteratureScience FictionGeorge OrwellHoaxJacob WallensteinShay AzoulayFake BiographyFuturistic TechnologyLiterary TributeH.G. Wells

Places mentioned

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"an obscure Dsseldorf-born writer named Jacob Wallenstein: Zionist, fan of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, longtime anonymous resident of the Ginosar Hotel on Rothschild Avenue in Tel Avivuntil his death"
Dsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
"The only child of Jewish educators, Jacob Wallenstein was born in Dsseldorf in 1909."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Wallenstein sent two copies of his book, along with his heavily annotated copy of Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and all of his notes and original drawings, to Israels National Library in Jerusalem."

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Cairo Item ID 84953
Cairo Source ID 10
Retrieved 2026-06-16 05:31:49 UTC
Curated 2026-06-16 08:31:29 UTC