Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a charismatic Israeli Jewish comedian, screenwriter, and activist, born in 1986. She possesses a unique dual Jewish heritage: her mother is of Iranian descent (Mizrahi), and her father is the son of Holocaust survivors from Romania (Ashkenazi). Noam grew up in Neve Shalom (Wahat al-Salam), or the “Oasis of Peace”—the only intentional community in Israel founded jointly by Jews and Palestinians—which allowed her to become fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English from a young age. Before pursuing comedy, she was a diplomat working on conflict resolution for Interpeace, a UN-affiliated organization. This multifaceted cultural and professional background provides her with a profound, multi-layered perspective on Middle Eastern politics.
In her professional career, Noam has stood out on the international stage for her sharp political satire and trilingual performance style. In 2018, she was named the “New Jewish Comedian of the Year” by London’s JW3 Centre. As a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School, she developed her signature one-woman show, Coexistence, My Ass! In 2025, a documentary of the same name following her journey of art and resistance premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression. Her viral Arabic-language satirical skits have made her a household name across the Arab world, breaking cultural barriers and establishing her as one of the few contemporary artists with significant influence in both Hebrew and Arabic media.
Noam views comedy as a form of resistance, utilizing her Jewish identity and linguistic skills to expose the human rights violations caused by the occupation. She was the first Jewish performer to participate in the Palestine Comedy Festival and, during the escalations in Gaza in 2025, repeatedly joined anti-war protests despite significant public pressure. She staunchly rejects using “coexistence” as a buzzword to mask inequality, poignantly stating, “Coexistence cannot happen between the oppressor and the oppressed.” Regarding the situation in Gaza, she wrote on social media: “My soul aches… for the silence imposed on us. Have mercy on the children of Gaza.” She consistently emphasizes that “equality, not revenge, is the only viable path forward,” urging her audiences to look beyond her jokes and use her platform to see the silenced realities of Palestinian lives.