RKYHS welcomed Noa Tishby for last week’s SEED speaker. Tishby is an award-winning actress, producer, writer and activist who served as Israel’s first Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization until 2023. She authored “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” helping clarify Israel’s complexities in an accessible way, among other books. On top of all that, Noa Tishby is a powerhouse on social media, using her platforms to amplify important messages and engage with audiences worldwide. With her charisma and indomitable spirit, Tishby impressed upon the RKYHS students the need to be proud Zionists, even when it is not the popular thing to do. She emphatically discussed how Zionism and Judaism are inseparable, how knowledge is the best antidote to hate and misinformation and how to respond as students both on social media and once they get to college campuses.

Tishby stressed the importance of the power of relationships which held that much more weight as our students were joined for today’s speaker by our partners in the SOAR (Seminar on Antisemitism and Racism) program from St Benedicts Prep in Newark. In the seminar, the students have been jointly reading and discussing Tishby’s book “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew” that she co-authored with Emmanuel Acho.