Does Noa Tishby Support Israel?

Maya Mizrachi Feb 19, 2025 Updated Aug 07, 2026 4 min read

Short answer: Yes. Noa Tishby is an Israeli-born actress, producer, and author who has spent over a decade as a public pro-Israel advocate. She founded the advocacy nonprofit Act for Israel in 2011, served as Israel's first government-appointed Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization from 2022 to 2023, wrote a bestselling pro-Israel explainer book, founded a second advocacy nonprofit called Eighteen in 2024, and continues frequent public advocacy into 2026. She has also criticized a specific Israeli government policy (the 2023 judicial overhaul), which is a policy critique, not a break from her support for Israel. As of August 2026.

What Noa Tishby has actually said and done

2011: Tishby founded Act for Israel, described as Israel's first online pro-Israel advocacy organization, which arranged media outreach with Israeli officials, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
April 2022: Then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid appointed Tishby as Israel's first-ever Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization of Israel, per Jewish Insider.
March 12, 2023: Tishby joined other prominent pro-Israel figures, including Miriam Adelson, in publicly condemning the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul as Israeli protests entered their 10th week, reported the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
April 2, 2023: Israel's Foreign Ministry dismissed Tishby from the Special Envoy role. She said the timing, following her public criticism of the judicial overhaul, made it hard to conclude the dismissal was not retaliatory, according to The Times of Israel.
November 15, 2023: Tishby testified before a U.S. House committee on antisemitism, identified in the official witness biography as an Israeli actress and activist, per U.S. Congress.
2024: Tishby founded a second nonprofit, Eighteen, aimed at promoting Jewish pride and Israel advocacy, particularly among younger audiences, per The Hollywood Reporter.
December 2025: Middle East Monitor, reporting on a Responsible Statecraft (Quincy Institute) investigation, published leaked 2011 emails alleging Act for Israel coordinated with the Israeli government closely enough to require registration under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, which it never filed. Tishby responded, per The Hollywood Reporter, that the group had been dismantled years earlier and that she personally registered under FARA once she took the 2022 Special Envoy post. See also Middle East Monitor.
January 30, 2026: Tishby appeared on PBS's Firing Line, calling anti-Zionism the modern manifestation of antisemitism and saying "Israel turned into the Jew of the World," while distinguishing legitimate criticism of Israel's government from denying Israel's right to exist.
March 21, 2026: Tishby spoke at Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills about the Iran war, rising antisemitism, and how parents can raise proud Jewish children, reported the Jewish Journal.

The full picture: advocate first, critic of specific policies when she disagrees

Tishby was born in Tel Aviv in May 1975 and served roughly two and a half years in the Israel Defense Forces as a performer with a military entertainment troupe before her acting and producing career, which included selling the Israeli series BeTipul to HBO, where it became In Treatment. She describes her upbringing as "secular Zionist." Some sourcing points to family ties to Israel's founding generation, though that specific genealogical detail could not be independently confirmed and is best treated as background rather than a settled fact.

Her advocacy work runs in two phases. The first, starting in 2011, was Act for Israel, an online group that arranged media outreach on Israel's behalf. A December 2025 investigation raised the question of whether that early work should have been registered as foreign-agent activity under FARA, a compliance question about record-keeping from over a decade ago, not a dispute about her position on Israel itself. Tishby has said the group was dismantled years ago and that she personally registered under FARA once she took her formal government role.

The second phase is that formal role: Israel's first Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization, appointed in April 2022. In March 2023, she publicly called the government's judicial overhaul a "coup," joining other well-known pro-Israel voices in that criticism. She was dismissed from the envoy post days later, and while the Foreign Ministry did not name her criticism as the official reason, she has said the timing makes it hard to read the move as unrelated. Criticizing one Israeli government's specific policy while remaining a committed advocate for the country is a distinction she has drawn explicitly and repeatedly.

Since October 7, 2023, Tishby has remained one of the more visible English-language voices countering anti-Zionist rhetoric, testifying before Congress and founding Eighteen, a nonprofit built to reach younger audiences on Jewish pride and Israel advocacy. Her public schedule through early 2026, including a national PBS interview and a synagogue talk on antisemitism and Jewish identity, shows continued, active engagement rather than a step back. Nothing in the public record indicates any support for boycotting Israel.

The bottom line

Noa Tishby is one of the most visible pro-Israel advocates in American public life: an Israeli-born former government envoy, founder of two Israel-advocacy organizations, and a frequent media presence defending Israel through 2026. She has also been openly critical of one specific Israeli government's judicial overhaul, a policy disagreement she has been clear does not amount to opposing Israel's existence. A 2025 report raised unresolved questions about decade-old registration practices at her first advocacy group, which remains a contested and developing story rather than a settled black mark. Taken together, the record shows a committed, longtime supporter of Israel who is also willing to criticize a specific government when she disagrees with it.