Actress Noa Tishby, Prominent Pro-Israel Activist, Fights Her Info War
Noa Tishby
Alon Shafransky
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“Candace Owens and all these psychos didn’t come out of nowhere,” says the Israeli-American actress-producer Noa Tishby. “Antisemitic ideas of Jewish power and control, this notion of the global Jew who is suspect no matter what we do: There’s a long history of exploiting this. It’s just now disseminated at the speed of light through social media.”
In the years since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and the subsequent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, the L.A.-based Tishby has emerged as a prominent online influencer attempting to counter rising antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiment. Her brand of hasbara — the Israeli word for explaining the state and its actions to foreigners — is glamorous, conversational and message-disciplined.
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Tishby’s efforts have made her a controversial figure both online as well as at political demonstrations, even if she’s often greeted with a drumbeat of effusive accolades from approaching strangers at home, as The Hollywood Reporter witnessed over a recent lunch in Studio City. “I’m called a ‘genocide queen,’” she shrugs. “It’s ridiculous. I’m the one who’s been working toward peace my entire life.”
Tishby, who became an American citizen in 2008, was a successful TV actress in Israel who moved to L.A. in the early 2000s for work, landing roles on shows like Nip/Tuck, Star Trek: Enterprise, Charmed and Big Love. She also was an executive producer on In Treatment after selling HBO the originating Israeli format, BeTipul. She soon turned to activism — and has since stopped pursuing an entertainment career — out of a growing frustration with what she views as ignorance and bias about Israel. “There’s a lot of very strong opinions, and very little knowledge,” she says, asserting that Israel’s Jewishness itself explains why it’s often judged to a different standard than other nations. “No other country is debated as to whether or not it should exist.”
Tishby sees incessant examples of this inconsistency, especially in the media. On May 11, The New York Times published an investigation with the heading “How Israel Turned Eurovision’s Stage Into a Soft Power Tool: Israel’s efforts to influence Eurovision’s vote were broader and started years earlier than previously known.” She says, “This is a perfect example. The framing is nefarious and conspiratorial and the ‘findings’ amount to nothing. Israel is using ‘soft power’? So does every country.”
Much of Tishby’s activity has been highlighting aspects of Jewish culture and history “that have nothing to do with Israel, on purpose” — especially as rates of antisemitic violence have spiked throughout diaspora communities. Her most high-profile project for the past couple years is an online nightly menorah lighting series during Hanukkah featuring the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Gal Gadot, Tiffany Haddish, Pink, Amy Schumer, Mila Kunis and Mayim Bialik. “It’s all very positive and visible and fun and uplifting,” she says. “But I can’t tell you how many no’s I received. People who said, ‘I’m afraid for my family. I’m afraid for my friends. I love this. Good for you for being out there for us. But I can’t do it.’”
Her latest endeavor is a sequence of educational videos, meant to be accessible for children, which range from the religion of Judaism to the history of the Holocaust. “It’s for beginners,” she said. Tishby, who grew up in a secular household, has partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second largest in the U.S., enrolling more than half a million students — to create materials approved for classrooms and to recognize, for the first time, May’s Jewish American Heritage Month. She sees this as an attempted corrective, pointing to hostile attitudes against Israel, and Jews more broadly, which are now highest among the youngest generations. “They’re getting groomed to be suspicious towards Israel, to be suspicious towards Jews.”
Tishby’s efforts have drawn dissent. Case in point: Dr. Anat Plocker, a professor of Judaic Studies, slammed her in The Nation for “weaponizing antisemitism discourses, equatin