"No Zionism" or how the Lit World Wields a Blacklist

Children of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, tribe.

So today I promised to write about an incident that has rocked the literary world, but in truth, it’s just the latest episode in an alarming trend within the publishing industry in general.

This trend is toward a rising effort to marginalize and isolate the vast majority of Jewish writers who aren’t willing to condemn our homeland as the price of admission into the literary fold. This includes concerted pressure on keynote speakers and panelists to denounce Israel at writers’ conferences, disruptive protests in the midst of such events, smear campaigns on book review sites against Jewish writers with even the most tenuous connections to Israel, a rash of literary magazines and journals whose submission guidelines specify “no Zionism”, and open letters — signed by thousands of writers — filled with false slander about the Jewish nation. But even the “good Jews” aren’t actually safe, as they never, ever are. Indeed, there has even been a widespread outcry against the publication of Jews who devote their entire lives to condemning Israel.

Consider the comment section beneath this anti-Zionist manifesto by Jewish Voice for Peace (or JVP), the most scorchingly anti-Semitic anti-Israel org I’ve ever encountered aside from violent jihadists. Spectacles like this one are why I implore my fellow Jews to never attempt to appease our haters. It’s a losing proposition from every angle. There will never be anything you can say or do that will absolve you of the irreducible sin of being Jewish. As you can see by reading over a hundred comments in response to JVP’s book, even if a Jewish woman spends her entire professional life trying to dismantle Israel as a Jewish state, she’s still guilty and cancellation-worthy if she’s married to an Israeli, as Rebecca Vilkomerson is.

In the latest domino to fall, Guernica magazine — an elite literary journal dedicated to international art and politics — seems to have imploded altogether after publishing a thoughtful and nuanced essay titled From The Edges Of A Broken World. Its author is Joanna Chen, an Israeli peace activist struggling to continue her work in the wake of the October 7th massacre.

Chen is nothing if not a force for respectful and empathetic coexistence. She is a translator of Hebrew and Arabic works, and she believes voices from both sides of the Israeli / Palestinian divide deserve equal consideration and regard. The essay mentions her refusal to serve in the IDF, as well as her years-long volunteer work of providing transportation to Palestinian children in need of medical care. And it mines her grief, horror and feelings of helplessness in the wake of the massacre and the IDF’s response — as well as her eventual effort to find her way forward with her Palestinian fellow activists.

But given the reaction of up to 15 of Guernica’s staff members and writers, you would think the essay had been penned by Bezalel Smotrich or Itamar Ben Gvir.

Following its publication on March 4th, Madhuri Sastry resigned as co-publisher within the week, declaring the essay "a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine." She also demanded the resignation of Jina Ngarambe, Guernica’s editor-in-chief.

Ishita Marwah, the fiction editor, also resigned, after opining that Chen’s piece rendered the journal "a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness."

Not to be outpaced in the race to the hyperbolic bottom, another Guernica writer, Joshua Gutterman Tranen, tweeted that the essay was “genocidal”:

Grace Loh Prasad, a memoirist who also had recent work published in Guernica, wrote: “I am alarmed & upset that my writing has appeared alongside an essay that attempts to convey empathy for a colonizing, genocidal power.”

And countless others piled on with similar statements, posts and tweets — to the point where the beleaguered and gutted Guernica pulled the essay from publication.

“Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it,” the journal stated on its site. “A more fulsome explanation will follow."

To date, that more “fulsome” (surely the wrong term, since it means ‘flattering’) explanation is nowhere to be seen.

So here is where I offer a confession.

I used to be afraid of pitchfork-wielding internet mobs like this one.

I’m a writer too and the ability to carve out a successful publishing career often amounts to a popularity contest.

And yet something life-altering happened to me after October 7th.

I stopped being afraid. Stopped caring altogther. I no longer care who hates me; I no longer care who comes at me.

I no longer care if I never again bring a writing project to the world via the realm of traditional publishing.

I am literally willing to have only Jewish friends for the rest of my life if it comes to that.

It won’t come to that, very fortunately. I have absolutely stellar non-Jews within my circle of friends and way more of them get it than you might think at this current moment.

But I was willing — I am willing — to stand up for the Jewish community and our unbreakable bond with Israel, come what may.

And here’s the good news, Yidden (because merely chronicling all the soul-crushing hatred would be too easy and too lame, and I’m committed to raising our spirits, always):

So many of our brave and beautiful brothers and sisters are standing up with us against the scourge of anti-Semitism infecting the lit world.

The valiant Erika Dreifus — author of Quiet Americans: Stories and Birthright: Poems — has compiled a Jewish "Green Book" of sorts, a guide to where various orgs and venues within the publishing industry position themselves in relation to the I/P conflict.

The courageous Sarah Einstein — author of MOT: a memoir — penned a candid and important essay about the unwelcoming atmosphere for many Jews at the recent AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) conference.

The Jewish Book Council has launched an initiative to track instances of anti-Semitism within the realm of publishing.

So many news outlets — both Jewish and mainstream — have now covered the debacle at Guernica that Joanna Chen’s beautiful essay is likely achieving a thousand times the reach than it would have, had the magazine not retracted it.

And beyond all this, I can honestly report that no longer caring what anyone thinks about my Zionism is one of the most liberating feelings I’ve ever experienced. If you take just two or three steps back from an internet mob like this one, it starts to look like a clown car. Really! The response to Chen’s essay is so patently batshit that it defies parody. We must never pander to such cheap histrionics — it’s beneath us. We take names and press on.

Okay, fam. I hope you’re otherwise having a wonderful week. I’ll be back with you tomorrow, and in the meantime, I send you fierce love and lionesque Jewish pride.

Mir Veln Zey Iberlebn. Chazak v’ematz. Am Yisrael Chai.