Brooklyn book launch canceled over ‘Zionist’ moderator is rescheduled for next week
Jewish writer Joshua Leifer, left, and his new book, “Tablets Shattered.” (Courtesy/Dutton Publishing)
(New York Jewish Week) — An event at a Brooklyn bookstore that was canceled because an employee objected to its “Zionist” moderator, causing widespread backlash, has been rescheduled for a different location next week.
The event for “Tablets Shattered,” a new book on American Jewish life by journalist Joshua Leifer, will take place on Monday evening at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights.
Monday’s discussion will be moderated by Rabbi Andy Bachman, who was supposed to host the initial event at Powerhouse Arena, an independent bookstore in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn. Leifer is a Jewish journalist who has written for a range of left-wing publications including Jewish Currents and +972, and Bachman, who previously led Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim and identifies as a Zionist, is a progressive and a critic of the Israeli government.
The Powerhouse Arena event was initially set to take place this past Tuesday. But shortly before the start time, Leifer said he learned the event had been canceled because Bachman is a Zionist.
The bookstore “told me they were unwilling to host the conversation with Andy because they would not permit a Zionist on the premises,” Leifer wrote on X.
The owner of the bookstore, Daniel Power, told the New York Jewish Week that a rogue employee had canceled the event and would be fired over the incident. “It’s hideous, it’s uncalled for, and it was completely unauthorized,” he said.
On Thursday, the bookstore released a public statement condemning the employee’s decision to cancel the event, confirming she had been fired, and acknowledging “anti-Semetic [sic] hostility.”
“Bookstores especially cannot fulfill their basic raison d’être without an unflinching commitment to the free and open exchange of ideas,” the statement said.
The cancellation drew harsh criticism from Jewish leaders and public officials, including New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander (who also self-identified as a Zionist) and New York Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres.
“We know and respect both Josh and Rabbi Bachman quite a lot and so it feels like a no-brainer from us, from a community perspective,” said Rabbi Matt Green, co-founder of the Center for New Jewish Culture, about why the venue decided to host the event.
“The Center for New Jewish Culture is founded on the idea that we need to have difficult conversations, and I would say we need to have conversations that really impact the Jewish people right now, and this obviously is one,” he added.
The term “Zionist” has become pejorative in parts of the American left, with progressive groups, business owners and college students actively seeking to exclude “Zionists” from public spaces. Surveys show that most Jews in the United States feel an attachment to Israel.
The cancellation incident was the latest instance since Oct. 7 of Jews facing isolation in the arts world over Israel. Controversy over the Israel-Hamas war has embroiled other literary spaces since Oct. 7. A viral list targeting “Zionist” authors circulated online, a Jewish sponsor of the National Book Awards withdrew from the ceremony due to an effort to call for a ceasefire, and PEN America canceled an annual festival due to disputes over the war.
Last month, a manager at a Chicago bookstore, City Lit, withdrew Gabrielle Zevin’s popular book “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” from consideration for a book club because she claimed that Zevin — who has not spoken publicly about her views on Israel — was a “Zionist.” The bookstore later apologized for the decision but did not apologize to Zevin.
An online petition launched earlier this week demanding more Jewish and Zionist representation in independent bookstores, including Powerhouse, has garnered more than 700 signatures.
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