Two decades ago, Noa Tishby left her Tel Aviv home to pursue acting in Hollywood, where she found success as an actress, model, producer, and singer. Yet, about 10 years ago, she shifted her focus from acting in scripted drama to the real-life drama playing out in the Middle East, on American college campuses, on social media, and elsewhere.
She is a dominant and provocative voice advocating on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel, striving to fight rising antisemitism, and debunking misinformation about Israel.
Israel's former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization, Tishby is the author of the 2021 New York Times bestseller Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. Her latest book, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, cowritten with Emmanuel Acho, delves into a complex investigation of antisemitism.
Jewish Chicago recently caught up with Tishby about her advocacy work, her love of the Chicago Jewish community, and her hope for a brighter Jewish future.
Q. Jewish Chicago: Does your advocacy work feel beshert?
Noa Tishby: I don't know if it was beshert, but it was certainly meant to be. Even as a young actress in Los Angeles, I would always chew people's ears off about Israel. I just saw the misunderstanding about Israel, about the Jewish people, and about antisemitism, so I had to speak up. I couldn't have dreamt of a better way to spend my life and energy.
Are you looking forward to speaking to Chicago Jewish women?
The Chicago Jewish community is so extraordinary, so tight knit, so colorful, and so Zionist. I have five sisters, so being around women is my favorite thing-and I can't wait to come back to Chicago and spend time with Chicago women.
Do you outline goals in your advocacy efforts?
When you do this line of work, you cannot have an end goal because I don't think that antisemitism is ever going to end-it hasn't at least in 2,000 years. But my intention is to move humanity forward-to defend Israel, fight antisemitism, and inspire Jewish pride. One of the most important things for us to do as a Jewish community is to inspire Jewish pride in our younger generation. Then, if we have pride and are rooted in our Jewish identity in the most powerful, inspiring, and confident of ways, then antisemitism will go back to the closet where it belongs.
What can our readers do right now to advocate for the Jewish people?
The one thing is to reach out to your non-Jewish communities around you. Everybody has a group of non-Jewish friends or colleagues or members of a yoga class. To me, the more open and welcoming we are-and the more people get to know us-the more antisemitism [will decrease] because you only hate what you don't know.
Are you optimistic about the Jewish future?
I'm very optimistic because I'm a student of history and I know that we have been through this-adversity and persecution-before. We've been through this in the past and we will survive this yet again. In fact, I wouldn't bet against the Jews ever because that's just not a good bet historically. I'm very optimistic about peace, about the Jewish people, and about Israel. I am optimistic that we can and will overcome it.
You can follow Noa Tishby on Instagram @NoaTishby.
To register for the JUF Lion Event on Sept. 26, visit
juf.org/LionEvent
. Questions? Please contact Shelby Scheck at 312-357-4825 or ShelbyScheck@juf.org.
