L.A. Woman 2024: Noa Tishby Is the Leading Voice of Israel Activism

Hours before American media caught wind of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, Noa Tishby delivered the grim reality on her Instagram feed, absorbing in real time the shock and terror of what amounted to the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. “We broke the news about the rockets,” says Tishby, producer (HBO’s In Treatment) and author (New York Times bestseller Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth), who previously served as Israel’s inaugural Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization. “Then we broke the news about the fact that it’s a ground invasion; that cities and kibbutzim were under siege; about Nova,” she says of the music festival where hundreds were killed, raped, tortured, kidnapped or all of the above.

Since that day, Tishby has further positioned herself as a powerhouse activist-cum-geopolitical expert. Amid a 388% rise in antisemitic hate crimes in the United States since the Hamas attacks (per the Anti-Defamation League), Tishby has worked tirelessly to debunk anti-Zionist myths permeating the Internet, college campuses and social media. She has appeared as a guest on NewsNation’s Cuomo, attended President Biden’s Hanukkah party at the White House, collaborated on content with celebrities such as Chelsea Handler, Michael Rapaport, Mayim Bialik and Debra Messing, and reported from the charred remains of the homes Hamas destroyed. Tishby’s follow-up book, Uncomfortable Conversations With a Jew, co-authored with Emmanuel Acho, will be published in April.

But as vocal as Tishby has been, her strongest adversary is silence in the face of the 136 hostages still held captive in Gaza. “If we equate this to Germany starting in 1931, it was also very unpopular to speak up, to speak truth to power,” says Tishby, a Tel Aviv native. She calls the few high-profile individuals who have spoken up “gutsy and commendable,” and wishes more people would “grow a pair.”

“People are just too afraid of the Twitter mob,” Tishby adds. “We need to be able to shut out the hate and do the right thing, which is standing up for human rights, for releasing the hostages and against a genocidal terrorist organization that is coming to take the Jews — and, right after, coming to take America.”

Below, Tishby shares her thoughts on Israel, her new book and hope for the future of Jews globalwide.

When you moved to Los Angeles from Tel Aviv 20 years ago to further pursue your showbiz career, did you ever envision you’d become a prominent spokesperson for Israel and the Jewish people?
When I moved to L.A., all I wanted to do was sing and act and produce. So that's what I moved here to do. But very quickly, I saw the lack of knowledge that people have about Israel. And what shocked me as an Israeli was not the lack of knowledge about Israel — because, as I always say, I know nothing about the governance structure of Denmark — but it was that people who didn’t know anything about Israel had so many opinions about Israel. I was a 22-year-old Israeli girl living in America and I came here going, "Oh, everybody knows Israel is modern and democratic and liberal." And then I realized there were people who literally didn’t understand why I don’t have an accent, why I don’t have a camel and why I don’t have a hijab.

In Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, there’s one anecdote about an encounter with a young, Oscar-winning actress that in a loose sense launched your advocacy work in the U.S. At least amongst your American friends. Can you discuss?
That story was a pivotal moment in my life. I had just moved to L.A. and a bunch of us – young up-and-comers in Hollywood — were hanging out. One of the girls was already famous at that time. She was getting all the awards; everybody between the ages of nine and 90 knows who she is. So, she comes up to me one time and says, ‘I heard you’re from Israel. How does your family feel about you? You know, you’re modern and you don’t wear all that head gear.’ And here I am looking at her and I'm going, Oh my god, she thinks Israel is Afghanistan. And this was a well-intended, successful, smart girl. And I thought, if this is what she thinks about Israel, what do other people think about Israel? So I ended up being this kind of quote unquote ‘Miss Israel’ amongst my friends and colleagues from the beginning. It's always been an authentic, deep passion of mine.

What intrigued you about co-authoring your second book Uncomfortable Conversations With a Jew with Emmanuel Acho?
Emmanuel approached me after he wrote his book Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, which did very well, because he wanted to reach out to the Jewish community. He saw the rise in antisemitism and the rise in anti-Zionism and all this hate and he said, ‘I want to help people understand your community, and I want to do the same kind of format that I did with Black Man except this time around, I'm the one who's asking the questions.’ And I thought this was extraordinary, and I just knew that this is the right thing to do. It’s a complimentary book to my first one. It focuses more on the global Jewish community and it touches upon Israel–because you cannot not touch upon Israel, especially in times like this. It was supposed to come out in 2025, but then October 7 happened and it became very clear that we needed the book to come out sooner. We often worked in silos, but what we need is to collaborate between various communities — whether it’s the Black community or the Asian community. And when Emmanuel approached me, I knew immediately that this was my second book. For Emmanuel to be such a strong ally to the Jewish community is inspiring and empowering.

You travel the world speaking to crowds about Israel and antisemitism. What gives you hope for the future of the Jewish people?
I just got back from spending a weekend with 4,000 Jewish teens at the BBYO (B’nai Brith Youth Organization) International Convention in Orlando, Florida. And this gives me so much hope for the future. These kids are unabashedly Jewish, unabashedly Zionist and unabashedly working to make the world a better place through social justice with Jewish values. They’re just very, very proud and I’m so thrilled that I was able to be there. These kids are phenomenal. This is the Jewish future. And the Jewish future is bright. 

Photo Shoot Credits:
Photographed by Lenka Ulrichova
Hair and Makeup: Yaniv Katzav
1st Photo Assistant: Eric Larson
Digi Tech: Sean Kiel

A version of this story first appeared in the March 2024 issue of Los Angeles magazine, on newsstands now; click here to subscribe today.