Wednesday, October 13, 7:30 pm
Actress, producer, author, and activist Noa Tishby, kicks off the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, and Community Partners’ 11th Annual Israel Today and Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival next month.
Tishby has had a long, active career in the entertainment industry, starting as a child actor, then as a soldier performer before becoming a TV regular in her native Israel. Tishby eventually moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood, ultimately finding success in acting and producing, including involvement in the development of HBO’s In Treatment, which is based on an Israeli show.
While Tishby is a performer at heart, she grew up in a politically active household, a fact that influences how she interacts with the world. She has devoted much of her professional time in recent years to advocating for Israel in the media. In 2011, Tishby founded an Israel-focused online advocacy and response apparatus—Act for Israel. Hosted on Twitter, AFI works to fact check mistruths on the internet about Israel and the Middle East.
Throughout much of her adult life outside of Israel, Tishby has found herself asked numerous questions about the tiny nation. Often, she corrected misconceptions regarding Israeli history and politics. What began as a hobby and part of simple conversation, grew into a vocation that ultimately led to her new book: Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.
Part memoir, part explanation of Israeli culture, Tishby tackles much of the popular critiques of today’s Israel. By weaving her own experiences and that of her family with pre- and post-1948 history, Tishby’s book has a breezy conversational narrative that invites readers of all backgrounds to learn about the forces of modern Middle Eastern politics without confrontation. Though not a piece of scholarly or historical work, the book “is a powerful antidote to the widespread misunderstanding and willful misrepresentation that often obscures the truth about Israel. Much like the book itself, Noa is a fearless truth teller in an age of fashionable lies,” says Congressman Ritchie Torres.
In light of tensions in the Middle East, and an overwhelming misunderstanding regarding the lives of average Israeli citizens of all backgrounds, Tishby’s visit to Tidewater is extremely timely.
Free and open to the community, RSVP (required) at JewishVA.org/IsraelToday or contact Elka Mednick at emednick@ujft.org or 757-965-6112.