{"id":1364,"date":"2024-06-11T12:02:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.growpurpose.com\/bluecrab\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2024-06-12T11:33:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T15:33:44","slug":"book-review-uncomfortable-conversations-with-a-jew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.growpurpose.com\/bluecrab\/book-review-uncomfortable-conversations-with-a-jew\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew<\/strong>
\nEmmanuel Acho and Toa Tishby<\/strong>
\nSimon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster<\/strong>
\n292 pages<\/strong><\/p>\n

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?\u00a0 Should Jews be responsible for killing Jesus?\u00a0 What is a Jew, anyway?<\/p>\n

These questions, and many more just as hard and intimate — Jews and money, Jews and power — form the backbone of this book.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

The interviewer is Emmanuel Acho, the mild-mannered son of\u00a0 a Nigerian pastor and former NFL linebacker who also wrote two New York Times bestsellers, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy<\/em><\/a> and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man<\/a>. <\/em>The interviewee is Noa Tishby, a native of\u00a0 Tel Aviv who made history with her sale of In Treatment<\/em> to HBO, the first Israeli television show to become an American series.\u00a0 She also is a veteran of\u00a0 the Israeli army, a former special envoy for combatting antisemitism and defamation, and the New York Times\u2019 bestselling author of\u00a0 A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Acho even asks Tishby whether Jews are white.\u00a0 Tishby answers by saying\u00a0 that in America\u00a0 they are either not white enough or too white.\u00a0 She explains that\u00a0 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\u2019s\u00a0 ills.\u00a0 But, she says, they are too white when they succeed beyond the point their numbers would indicate.\u00a0 One example is that although Jews make up only 0.2 percent of the world\u2019s population, they have won 20 percent of\u00a0 all the\u00a0 Nobel Prizes ever awarded.<\/p>\n

Tishby also points out that Jews have proven themselves successful in many fields, but the numbers especially show them strong\u00a0 in banking and Hollywood.\u00a0 But, she says, that is because Jews for years faced discrimination in so many areas \u00a0that there wasn\u2019t much left for them on the East Coast except finance.\u00a0 She mentions discrimination in\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

East Coast discrimination was so harsh that\u00a0 many Jews migrated west to escape it, but when they found that the non-Jewish movies studios weren\u2019t interested in diversifying, \u201cthey slowly but surely built their own \u2013 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Loew\u2019s, and Universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so many intimate issues to cover, one might expect sparks to fly \u2013 and they do.\u00a0 At one point, during a discussion of Hamas\u2019 2023\u00a0 attack on Israel, Tishby became so inflamed that she furiously stormed out of the interview and canceled\u00a0 the whole book project.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

And what a book it is.\u00a0 Acho proves himself to be a skillful questioner, and Tishby proves herself\u00a0 well capable of providing clear, deeply personal, politically knowledgeable and historically accurate\u00a0 replies.\u00a0 It is a book that looks deeply into the soul of Judaism and makes complicated matters easy to understand.\u00a0 It also will help readers discern antisemitism whenever they see it, even when it\u2019s subtle, including any antisemitism they may unknowingly harbor within themselves.<\/p>\n

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