Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew

• Author: Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby
• Genre: Nonfiction/Social Sciences
• Publication Date: April 30, 2024
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

From two New York Times bestselling authors, a timely, disarmingly honest, and thought-provoking investigation into antisemitism that connects the dots between the tropes and hatred of the past to our current complicated moment.

For Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby no question about Jews is off-limits. They go there. They cover Jews and money. Jews and power. Jews and privilege. Jews and white privilege. The Black and Jewish struggle. Emmanuel asks, Did Jews kill Jesus? To which Noa responds, “Why are Jewish people history’s favorite scapegoat?” They unpack Judaism itself: Is it a religion, culture, a peoplehood, or a race? And: Are you antisemitic if you’re anti-Zionist?

The questions—and answers—might make you squirm, but together, they explain the tropes, stereotypes, and catalysts of antisemitism in America today.

The topics are complicated and Acho and Tishby bring vastly different perspectives. Tishby is an outspoken Israeli American. Acho is a mild-mannered son of a Nigerian American pastor. But they share a superpower: an uncanny ability to make complicated ideas easy to understand so anyone can follow the straight line from the past to our immediate moment—and then see around corners. Acho and Tishby are united by the core belief that hatred toward one group is never isolated: if you see the smoke of bigotry in one place, expect that we will all be in the fire.

Informative and accessible, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew has a unique structure: Acho asks questions and Tishby answers them with deeply personal, historical, and political responses. This book will enable anyone to explain—and identify—what Jewish hatred looks like. It is a much-needed lexicon for this fraught moment in Jewish history. As Acho says, “Proximity breeds care and distance breeds fear.”

I’ve been meaning to get around to this book for a while, yet I managed to read this at exactly the right time for this to be most impactful to me personally. And I’ll explain how I personally related to this book, but first I want to talk about my thoughts about the book itself. 

I read this in audiobook format, and it was narrated by both authors. Sometimes they have short, snappy interactions, and at other times, Acho would ask a question, Tishby would give a really thorough answer, and then Acho would talk about how her answer might challenge his understanding, lead to more questions, make perfect sense, or not make any sense and need some clarification on one side or the other. It felt like exactly what the title promises—uncomfortable conversations with a Jew, and far too many people haven’t had the chance to have any contact with a Jewish person, let alone the opportunity to get into these uncomfortable conversations. The friendship between these two is obvious, and their interactions felt like one of those podcasts where the hosts clearly have a friendship and a mutual respect for each other. This mutual respect as well as a desire to learn paired with a willingness (and ability/knowledge) to educate and discuss is essential in having these uncomfortable conversations.

These two people are probably the best people possible to write this book. Noa Tishby is one of the leading Israeli and Jewish activists around the world. She formerly worked as Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, and tirelessly offers information and education on social media. I loved her previous book, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, and figured this would be just as good. Emmanuel Acho is a new name to me, but I was so impressed by his understanding, knowledge, and willingness to ‘get uncomfortable,’ 

Literally no topic was off the table for these two. Acho was willing to ask any question, and Tishby had no problem answering any of them. This isn’t going to be new information for any Jewish person who is aware of the history and customs of their people, but I think it might help some people understand more about Jewish people, especially those who haven’t had much access to information about us, or have only heard misinformation that’s been circulating for nearly 2 millennia. These two discuss “the Jewish race,” the Holocaust, are Jewish people white, Jews and privilege, Jews and (conditional) white privilege, whether you can be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic, various tropes about Jewish people (Jews are rich, Jews are powerful, Jews run Hollywood), and even October 7th and Jewish fears that the Holocaust could happen again.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is how Acho brings up how the book almost didn’t occur, due to a major disagreement. But in true uncomfortable conversations fashion, Acho and Tishby talked out their differences. Sometimes they would agree to disagree on topics, but they always listened to each other respectfully and were willing to talk things out. 

As for my personal epiphany while reading this book, I realized that right around when this book came out, I was deepening a friendship with someone I had met through a totally different common interest. And one night we were talking, and it came out that she was anti-Zionist, and I was worried about telling her that I was Zionist, since I’ve lost so many friends because of it. Luckily, both of us valued the friendship enough and were willing to have the first of many uncomfortable conversations to hear each other out and extend the right to agree to disagree. Ultimately, we’ve both learned from this conversation and many others, touching on so many different topics that we’ve even been brave enough to branch out into talking about politics. And if you know me, you know that I don’t talk about politics with almost anyone. I’m so grateful to have a friend to have uncomfortable conversations with, and it’s helped me grow so much.

Overall, this is the kind of book that I just want to buy in bulk and hand out to everyone I know. Instead, I’ll have to settle for writing a rave review of this book and running to get Acho’s previous book—Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. Stay tuned to see how that one is.

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