By Talia Carner
BRIDGEHAMPTON, New York — In recent months, antisemitism in the USA has reared its ugly head. It has manifested its vile words and actions in every public sphere, and soon found a target in Jewish authors and writers. The calls to ban Jewish authors’ books and to force mainstream publishers such as HarperCollins and McMillan to “deplatform” their Jewish authors have been exploding unchecked on social media, such as TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Beyond words, actions have soon followed. Scheduled Jewish authors’ events have been canceled and many venues would not invite them to present. Agents are turning down manuscripts by Jewish writers or are firing Jewish clients whose work they had agreed to represent. These gate-keepers of the publishing world know that acquisition editors will not buy them.
The virulent antisemitism against Jewish authors in the USA has been documented in recent articles in the New York Times and the New York Post. In the UK, The British Telegraph reported that half of British publishers will not accept manuscripts by Jewish authors. Yet the Authors’ Guild, which should have been the first to raise its voice in indignation over the atrocious hate-fest against a significant portion of its members, has been kept mum.
Silence is loud. Silence is screaming. The Authors’ Guild which has spoken in no uncertain terms against banning books, which has taken pride in advocating for authors, and which declares in its mission statement to serve as the voice for authors, is yet to state disgust and condemnation of the hate speech and outright actions taken against its Jewish members.
In 1933, in over 20 cities in Germany, fires were set to burn books written by Jews. Those books were the cornerstone of what we consider our Western civilization, written by Kant, Schiller, Hesse, Mann, Hegel, Luther, Goethe, Einstein, and Freud among them. German newspapers triumphantly reported that “Germany was purging itself of Jews” because silencing and destroying Jewish voices was only an early step to what we all now know came next.
The Holocaust did not begin with incinerators. It began with words.
In 2020, the Authors’ Guild passed a resolution against racism. Isn’t the singling out Jewish authors not only for discrimination and scorn but also for actions against them the ultimate racism? We, Jewish members of the Authors’ Guild—and Jewish writers everywhere—deserve the same consideration, sympathy, and protection that you have generously and rightfully extended to our brothers and sisters who are Black writers and writers of color.
What has happened to your moral compass that you allow attacks on Jewish authors to go on for months without a response?
Dear leaders of the Authors’ Guild: Antisemitism has no “two sides of the story.” It has one side, and it is ugly and dangerous. Unless you speak up, you are taking the position of the evil.
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Talia Carner is an author with six books to her credit, including The Boy with the Star Tattoo, which was recently reviewed on San Diego Jewish World.
AG must speak up vs discrimination against Jewish authors.