Award winning filmmaker, writer and political activist, Lilly was born in Jerusalem and immigrated to the United States in 1945.  Before focusing on documentaries, she was a journalist, and foundation consultant on the Middle East and women.

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She began her prominence as an expert on Jewish history with her work as the principal researcher for the best selling account of the 1947 siege of O Jerusalem, by Larry Collins and Dominque Lapierre, (1972).

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She is listed in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 (2007) and Jewish Women, A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia (2007).