In 2020, former NFL player turned television analyst Emmanuel Acho announced his arrival as a commentator on social issues with his digital series-turned-book Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.
Now the former linebacker is adding to his catalog and tackling an unlikely subject in antisemitism while doing so, co-authoring a new book, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew.
Released on Tuesday, Acho co-authored his latest book alongside Israeli actress, producer and activist Noa Tishby. An Amazon listing for the book describes it as follows:
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.
According to the New York Post, the two authors were introduced through their agents after Acho learned of Tisbhy’s online activism and thought it would make for a good follow-up to his first two books, both of which focused on the Black experience in America. But whereas Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man saw Acho answering questions about his experience, this time, he’s the one doing the asking, with Tishby providing insight as both a pro-Israel and Zionist activist living in America.
“We’re two people who are very different, who put those differences aside for the greater good,” Acho told the post. “And to me, not enough people can do that.”
According to Acho, the book was first proposed more than a year before the October 7th Hamas massacre and subsequent war in Gaza. Considering that Acho has become a lightning rod in sports media and Tishby has faced her own criticism for her unrelenting Zionist stance, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew is sure to elicit no shortage of reaction, as Acho has become accustomed to at this point in his media career.
