Noam Shuster-Eliassi
Hebrew: נועם שוסטר אליאסי
Arabic: نعمة شوستر-إلياسي
Shuster-Eliassi in 2021
Born1986 or 1987 (age 36–37)[1]
Education

Noam Shuster-Eliassi (Hebrew: נועם שוסטר אליאסי, Arabic: نعمة شوستر-إلياسي; born 1986 or 1987), 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.[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 Women's Equity in Access to Care & Treatment (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]

"Dubai, Dubai"

Shuster-Eliassi had a viral moment in Arab media January 2022 in response to her performance of a satirical song called "Dubai, Dubai" in perfect Arabic on the program "Shu Esmo" (שו־אסמו, الشوسمو) on the Arabic Israeli station Makan 33.[6][7][8][9] Performing as "Haifa Wannabe" (playing on the name of the Arab pop star Haifa Wehbe),[10] she delivered searing punchlines satirizing the Abraham Accords and the Emirates' normalization of relations with Israel and mocking the hypocrisy of Israel's relations with Arab countries.[6] The song was written by the program's editor, Razi Najjar.[7]

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. 1 2 "Funny Girl". Brandeis Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Comedy or Leadership? A Conversation with Activist-Turned-Comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi". cmes.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "'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. 1 2 "How comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi became the woman who proposed to MBS". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  5. 1 2 3 "WATCH: Al Jazeera produces a film on Israeli stand-up comedian". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  6. 1 2 "בעולם הערבי לא מפסיקים לדבר על הישראלית ש"עושה צחוק מהאמירויות"". הארץ (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  7. 1 2 Guyer, Jonathan (2022-01-29). "Why an Israeli comedian went viral in the Arab world". Vox. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  8. ↑ "Online Controversy: Israeli comedian's viral satirical video mocking UAE normalization divides viewers". Arab News. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  9. ↑ @AJArabic (January 14, 2022). "مغنية إسرائيلية تنشر مقطعا ساخرا عن التطبيع مع إسرائيل.. كيف كانت تعليقات المستخدمين؟ #نشرتكم". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  10. ↑ "Satire. Une artiste israélienne fustige les Arabes des Émirats, qui ont "oublié la Palestine"". Courrier international (in French). 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
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