Noam Shuster-Eliassi

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Noam Shuster-Eliassi
Hebrew: נועם שוסטר אליאסי
Arabic: نعمة شوستر-إلياسي
EducationBrandeis University (2011)
Harvard University (fellowship at the Harvard Divinity School)

Noam Shuster-Eliassi (Hebrew: נועם שוסטר אליאסי, Arabic: نعمة شوستر-إلياسي) is an Israeli comedian and activist.[1][2][3][4] She performs in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.[2]

Biography[]

Shuster-Eliassi was born to an Iranian-born Jewish mother and a Jerusalem-born father whose parents were Holocaust survivors from Romania.[3] Since she was seven years old, she grew up in Neve Shalom/Wāħat as-Salām ("Oasis of Peace"), a community north of Jerusalem where Jews and Palestinians live together by choice.[2][3] In this community, she learned Arabic quickly and was often mistaken for an Arab, suffering discrimination as a result.[3]

Shuster-Eliassi participated in national service instead of serving in the army, then went to study acting at the New York Film Academy for a year.[3] She played a part in Talya Lavie's 2006 short film "The Substitute" before attending Brandeis University on a scholarship.[3] Through an internship with (WE ACT), she went to Rwanda to help women get medical treatment.[3]

Shuster-Eliassi became a co-director of Interpeace, an organization founded and later discontinued by the United Nations, when she was in her early 20s.[3]

In 2019, she went to the Harvard Divinity School for a fellowship under the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative, where she was to develop her one-woman show to be performed at various nightclubs in major US cities.[2][4][5] However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to Israel, where she contracted the virus and stayed at a coronavirus hostel in Jerusalem.[5]

She was the subject of the mini documentary Reckoning with Laughter, directed by Amber Fares and produced by Al Jazeera.[5]

Awards[]

In 2018, Shuster-Eliassi was named "Best New Jewish Comedian of the Year" in a competition sponsored by JW3, also known as Jewish Community Centre in London.[2][3]

References[]

  1. ^ "Funny Girl". Brandeis Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Comedy or Leadership? A Conversation with Activist-Turned-Comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi". cmes.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "'It's impossible to reduce me': The most up-and-coming Jewish comedian dares you to put her in a box". Haaretz. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  4. ^ a b "How comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi became the woman who proposed to MBS". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  5. ^ a b c "WATCH: Al Jazeera produces a film on Israeli stand-up comedian". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
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