Noa Tishby (from her website)
In an interesting week for political commentators, Noa Tishby, the Israeli actress and singer who had taken on the role of English spokesperson and media defender of Israel in recent years, was fired from her official position as Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism; even though, she was a volunteer in that position. Meanwhile, Fox News reporter Kassy Dillon revealed that she has completed the long process of converting to Judaism and has taken the Hebrew name Devorah Rut bat Sarah.
Devorah is Debra, the Biblical hero who led the Israelites in the Book of Judges, Rut is Hebrew for Ruth, the famous woman convert from the Biblical book of that name. And “bat Sarah” means daughter of Sara. In the Jewish religion people are referred to in religious ceremonies by their Hebrew name and as so/daughter of whomever. But since a convert does not have Jewish parents they are referred to as a child of Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the entire Jewish people.
Kassy Dillon said that it took her seven years to complete the conversion process. She said that during that time she was able to trace her family ancestry back to Jews who were expelled from Spain more than 500 years ago. The Hebrew name for Spain is “Sephard” and so this is the basis for the term Sephardic Jews. These Jews are mostly from Middle Eastern countries. The second group of Jews is called “Ashkenaz” and these are the Jews who trace their ancestry back to Europe. Sephardic and Ahkenazic Jews have different traditions in some areas of Jewish practice.
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But Kassy Dillon chose to adopt the traditions of the Ashkenazic community because she underwent conversion through an Ashkenazic rabbi.
She described her first Shabbat as a Jew as “”Beautiful. Lighting candles for a real purpose just brought me so much happiness.”
As for Noah Tishby, the question is “how do you get fired from a volunteer job?”
Well, in her case it has to do with the politics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Noah Tishby was appointed last year by former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who is now the leader of the opposition in the Knesset.
And Tishby publicly broke with Israel’s current government over its judicial reform plan, criticizing it. A few weeks ago Noah Tishby wrote an editorial in an Israeli newspaper saying, “I will say it in the sharpest and clearest way: Diaspora Jewry and Israel’s supporters in the world are shocked. They are shocked. With great pain they look and see how the country they fiercely defended — in Congress, in the media, on the networks or to foreign governments — is changing its face.”
Now Noah Tishby stated on Twitter, “It is with disappointment and sadness, but an enduring determination, that I can confirm that the current Israeli government has dismissed me as Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Israel.”
She went on to acknowledge that she cannot know for a certainty if Tishby’s termination resulted from her publicly stated “concerns” about this government’s judicial reform policy.
“But given the reality that antisemitism continues its dangerous rise globally,” said Noah Tishby, “and the threat to Israel’s existence through delegitimization policies has not slowed, it is difficult to come to any other reasonable conclusion.”
