I'm Collaborating With The ADL

A Report On Antisemitism In Publishing

For those of you who don’t follow me on another social platform, I have big news. (And honestly, if you follow me somewhere else, whatever. It’s still big news!) The ADL has brought me on board to help create a data driven report about antisemitism in the publishing industry since October 7th, 2023.

This report is important and it’s vital.

Since October 7th, Jews—particularly public Zionists—have been facing crushing discrimination across the artistic landscape. It’s happened in performing arts, in visual arts, and in publishing. It’s bad for mid-career professionals, but it’s devastating for those who are up and coming. If you can’t get an agent or a call back, how are you ever going to get your career started?

I’ve found myself somewhere in the middle. I have a long and successful non-fiction career behind me, and had huge early success getting agented for my very Jewish novel… and then… nothing.

Of course, lack of success of one person isn’t proof. Publishing is highly subjective, so even a book like mine that had a ton of agent interest can just not garner editor interest. It happens. Nothing in life is a sure thing, and nothing in publishing is even close to a sure thing.

I have a decent platform. And beyond that, I’ve been in publishing, Jewish activism, and generally online for long enough that I’m very well connected. And sitting in the center of a nerve network means that over the last two and a half years I’ve spoken to many Jewish writers who were struggling, particularly those with a public presence where they talked about being Jewish, and hence about Israel.

In the year of our lord 2026, we have reverted to using the phrase “publicly Jewish.” As in, those of us who don’t keep our Jewishness quiet, don’t keep our conversation within the bounds of approved discourse, those of us who refuse to make ourselves small.

And for writers who are publicly Jewish? Well. My DM’s have been full of awful stories since 10/7. Agents wouldn’t return calls. Editors were not interested. A fair number of established authors that I’ve spoken to had agents drop them.

Sometimes the discrimination was explicit, sometimes it was hinted at.

“We need you to take out these Jewish references.”

“You can’t mention 10/7.”

“Your books are good, but they’re just not selling.”

“I can no longer champion your career.”

For two years I kept my mouth shut. If I wanted a hope of a fiction career, I figured I needed to play nice.

Then I met Phoebe Maltz Bovy, and she convinced me it was time to talk. I had a reputation, a record of success, and the media chops to step forward. I assumed it would light my career on fire, but I decided that someone needed to walk into the fire. And if I could speak up, I had a responsibility to.

Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot says, “It is not for you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” And of course the unspoken words are that often the task is miserable. And Rabbi Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self only, what am I? And if not now, when?” Our job is to stand not just for ourselves, but also for the Jewish people as a whole.

So I did a podcast interview with Phoebe Maltz Bovy for the Canadian Jewish News. I figured it was a safe way to test out the message in a small and friendly publication, and see how it went.

How it went, was viral. Suddenly my inbox flooded with people in the industry that wanted to talk.

Not Just Stories, But Data

Before the interview I’d been thinking about pulling together a data set. No individual story helps. I mean, sure. One Jewish book didn’t sell. One Zionist author couldn’t get an agent. That’s all anecdotal. It could be because the person was Jewish, or it could be just because nobody wanted to buy their book. But if I could prove trends, that would be something different.

After the interview hit, I decided to spend a week doing research. When I’d finished I had jaw dropping data. I reached out to the ADL, and they asked me to help them on this report. I finalized that collaboration last week, and since then I’ve been swimming in thousands of data points.

Next Up: Solutions

This report will be instrumental, but it isn’t the end game. We need action and solutions that get Jews, particularly “public Jews,” Zionists, and those writing on Jewish topics, off the publishing blacklists.

And we will get there.

I’ve been taking calls and meetings, and several projects are underway to help Jewish fiction authors. The Jewish community knows how to respond to cultural exclusion and isolation, and we’re mobilizing.

It’s vital that our major legacy institution is going on record to detail the precise scope of the problem. We can’t heal without a diagnosis.

Why This Matters

I’m finding it really hard to switch back and forth between data and words. I spend hours every day staring at a spreadsheet, and then try to get myself to write on an unrelated topic, and my brain goes into static mode.

I built an enormous spreadsheet, and then beat myself up for not having also written a Substack essay. But I haven’t abandoned you, I’m just trying to move a tiny mountain while remembering why I care about this in the first place.

This weekend my husband and I took a solo trip down to LA. We were there to speak at our High School IB English teacher’s celebration of life, but I took as much time as I could to read.

I needed a reminder of what all these data points are about, of what we’re even doing here.

I care about this issue because I care about books. I care about free expression. I want books by all kinds of authors to be published. I don’t want a publishing industry that only picks books on themes they deem acceptable. I don’t want only authors with popular politics to be published. I don’t want shelves of new releases all written by people with uniform points of view.

We are a deeper, richer, better society when we have access to the thoughts and words of all kinds of artists.

The left has been fighting book bans. This is an important cause. Kids should be able to read a whole variety of books in school. We can’t decide that some ideas are dangerous and some are safe.

But there is a different, more insidious kind of book ban, one that’s being pushed by the same people carrying tote bags that say “I read banned books.”

It’s boycotts. It’s blacklists. It’s pressuring publishers to not pick up authors who have views that are unpopular in the world of publishing. This approach is pushing out Jewish authors and Zionist authors. But it’s pushing out other voices as well. And I want things to change.

You don’t have to ban a book if it never gets published. If the words never make it into print, you don’t have to throw it in a bonfire.

I’ve always been a staunch free speech advocate. I have to be, as a Jew. We’re a tiny minority. The minute society decides that ideological purity is more important than tolerance, Jews will get silenced and sidelined.

Which is exactly what’s happening. Jews are getting silenced and sidelined.

But luckily, we know how to solve problems like this. We’ve built Jewish hospitals, Jewish law firms, and yes, Jewish publishing houses.

It’s time to do it again.

But first, let’s look at the data.

We are not people who wait to be saved. We save ourselves, and in so doing change the world.

Am Yisrael Chai. Let’s fucking do this.