Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew
Emmanuel Acho and Toa Tishby
Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
292 pages
Why have the Jewish and Black communities been at odds with one another for so long? How did Jews come to have such a large presence in banking and Hollywood? Should Jews be responsible for killing Jesus? What is a Jew, anyway?
These questions, and many more just as hard and intimate — Jews and money, Jews and power — form the backbone of this book. The questions are asked by a Black Christian man and answered by a secular Jewish woman, both of whom are highly qualified for their tasks.
The interviewer is Emmanuel Acho, the mild-mannered son of a Nigerian pastor and former NFL linebacker who also wrote two New York Times bestsellers, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. The interviewee is Noa Tishby, a native of Tel Aviv who made history with her sale of In Treatment to HBO, the first Israeli television show to become an American series. She also is a veteran of the Israeli army, a former special envoy for combatting antisemitism and defamation, and the New York Times’ bestselling author of A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.
Acho even asks Tishby whether Jews are white. Tishby answers by saying that in America they are either not white enough or too white. She explains that they are not white enough when they are considered too ethnic, or dirty, stupid, shady slackers who, during World War I, were war profiteers responsible for many of the country’s ills. But, she says, they are too white when they succeed beyond the point their numbers would indicate. One example is that although Jews make up only 0.2 percent of the world’s population, they have won 20 percent of all the Nobel Prizes ever awarded.
Tishby also points out that Jews have proven themselves successful in many fields, but the numbers especially show them strong in banking and Hollywood. But, she says, that is because Jews for years faced discrimination in so many areas that there wasn’t much left for them on the East Coast except finance. She mentions discrimination in employment opportunities, access to residential and resort areas, membership in clubs and organizations, teaching positions in colleges and universities, and restrictions in restaurants, hotels and other establishments.
East Coast discrimination was so harsh that many Jews migrated west to escape it, but when they found that the non-Jewish movies studios weren’t interested in diversifying, “they slowly but surely built their own – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Loew’s, and Universal.”
With so many intimate issues to cover, one might expect sparks to fly – and they do. At one point, during a discussion of Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel, Tishby became so inflamed that she furiously stormed out of the interview and canceled the whole book project. Obviously they got back together later, but they make a point of including a chapter in which they describe that episode. Both describe writing that chapter as uncomfortable but necessary before they could honestly finish the book.
And what a book it is. Acho proves himself to be a skillful questioner, and Tishby proves herself well capable of providing clear, deeply personal, politically knowledgeable and historically accurate replies. It is a book that looks deeply into the soul of Judaism and makes complicated matters easy to understand. It also will help readers discern antisemitism whenever they see it, even when it’s subtle, including any antisemitism they may unknowingly harbor within themselves.
