Who Is Lana Melman?
LANA MELMAN is an attorney, a 20-year entertainment industry veteran, a public speaker, author, columnist, commentator, and the CEO of Liberate Art Inc. She has been a leading expert fighting the cultural boycott campaign against Israel since 2011. Her monthly column, REFLECTIONS, appeared in the South Florida Jewish Journal/Sun Sentinel.
Lana’s book, ARTISTS UNDER FIRE: The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel, puts the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel on trial. Lana tells the stories of artists and entertainers like Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys, and Carlos Santana caught in its crossfire. She calls out a vocal group of artists, led by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, who have joined the attack and created a star-studded battle between themselves and the thousands of musicians, filmmakers, and authors who refuse to be cowed.
Book awards include the 2022 Nellie Bly Prize Blue Ribbon Winner for Nonfiction Journalism and the 2023 NYC Big Book Award in Cultural and Social Issues. Artists Under Fire was an Amazon New Release Best Seller in four categories.
Lana began her career in the entertainment industry as an attorney for Columbia Pictures Television and a business affairs executive at CBS. She later worked as a creative executive at CBS, Warner Bros., the Leonard Goldberg Company, and Paramount, then as a writer and executive producer.
She served as the premier director of Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), an entertainment-based non-profit. During her four years there (2011-2015), Lana worked with the representatives of almost a thousand artists pressed to boycott Israel and prevented numerous cancellations of scheduled concert dates in Israel.
She helped circulate a statement supporting Israel’s right to defend itself signed by over 300 Hollywood luminaries, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Seth Rogen, Kelsey Grammer, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Arnold, Benji Madden, and Sarah Silverman. She worked closely with Scarlett Johansson‘s representative during the SodaStream/Super Bowl controversy and with Alicia Keys’ team when she received extreme boycott pressure for her performance in Tel Aviv.
As CEO of Liberate Art, Lana united five-time Grammy winner Ziggy Marley together with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for its clean water initiative and produced the first anti-BDS celebrity panel featuring artists from film, television, and music. Participants included musician Alan Parsons (the Alan Parsons Project) and the iconic writer/producer/director David Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Scary Movies). She served as the Hollywood liaison for Yad Vashem’s “Who is your Holocaust Hero” initiative and was invited to speak to members of the UK Parliament regarding anti-BDS legislation.
Lana has written dozens of opinion pieces for international publications including and is a go-to source for information and commentary for journalists. A frequent guest on TV and talk radio, she has been invited to speak in forums large and small.
Lana is the CEO of Liberate Art, a former columnist for the South Florida Jewish Journal/Sun Sentinel, a Co-Founder of the EndJewHatred Movement, a speaker on JNF-USA Speaker’s Bureau, and a member of the JNF Arts and Entertainment Task Force.
Lana’s book Artists Under Fire - The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel was published on May 3, 2022.
Liberate Art provides thought leadership for confronting the alarming rise in antisemitism. It lays bare the connection between the demonization of Israel and the surge of modern day anti-Jewish race hate. It holds that all hate is bad, but Jew-hatred must be repudiated specifically and boldly for its unique qualities and frightening possibilities.
Since 2011, Melman has been a leader in the battle against the cultural arm of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel which has fostered much of today’s antisemitism.
Individuals and organizations are ready to fight, but they need help educating their constituents. Liberate Art explains complicated dynamics between antizionism and antisemitism in simple and digestible terms and offers a toolbox to inspire action.