A review by littlemiao
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Noa Tishby, Emmanuel Acho

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

My primary question for this book is if it is effective. Will anyone read it with an open mind and come away more educated and less bigoted against Jews? The collaborative nature of this book, how Acho took the initiative to reach out to Tishby, and how they worked through difficulties in their collaboration, gives me hope. Acho approaches his questions from a place of empathy and openness, which I found compelling. Tishby, by profession, is an effective communicator and manages to condense a lot of important information into digestible kernels. I cannot read this book with an outsider’s perspective to know if it can accomplish its goals. But it is a much needed project. On the whole, this is a good book to recommend to people who express genuine interest in understanding antisemitism as Jews experience it today. I imagine the book’s success will depend on how deeply ingrained antisemitic thought patterns are in the reader’s mind. I am not optimistic.

A few highlights that I hope more people will think about:

“If you find yourself on the same side of an argument as David Duke, the Iranian government, and ISIS, then I think you ought to reflect on how you got there in the first place.”

“Hamas is not acting as the Palestinian people’s bodyguard. In fact, it is exactly the other way around. Hamas uses the Palestinian people as their bodyguards when they attack Israeli civilians and then embed themselves in the Palestinian civilian population.”

And Tishby has a straightforward guide for people to tell if their criticism of Israel is antisemitic: Is your criticism an indictment of all Jews? Does it capitalize on antisemitic stereotypes? Or does it lay blame for an entire issue solely on Israel?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then indeed it is antisemitic. It is, in fact, easy to criticize Israel without being antisemitic. Vast numbers of Jews, including and perhaps especially Israelis, do so all the time.

One thing that the authors don’t confront is how deeply antisemitism is embedded in the Christian hegemonic culture. Things that don’t appear antisemitic are, and impact matters more than intention. But the non-Jewish world is not ready for that conversation, if it ever will be.
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