Erika Dreifus

As Passover concluded last week, yet another open letter was launched into the literary community. The creation of a self-described, self-congratulatory “concerned group of Jewish writers,” this letter—published in a highly visible and highly problematic “mainstream” outlet—is, in a word, outrageous. (In a few more words: It’s an attack on the Jewish Book Council [JBC] organization.)

My own visceral reaction upon reading the text was to recall a certain segment from the Passover Haggadah that many of us had so recently revisited.

At first, although I privately shared this response with some friends and colleagues, I opted not to say much publicly about this letter. For three reasons.

• I didn’t want to give the text additional oxygen.
• Due to personal/family circumstances, my focus is currently in demand elsewhere; I have little bandwidth to spare for yet another manifestation of Brandolini’s Law.
• I was taking a “wait and see” approach. By which I mean: I wanted to follow whatever direction JBC might ask of its supporters. (To date, however, I’ve encountered no such request; I’ve seen only JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter’s dignified comments as reported by JTA.)

At the same time, I’ve appreciated the public-facing responses offered by other Jewish writers, and I’m taking this opportunity to amplify some of them here:

• In “Antizionist Authors Target Jewish Book Council with ‘Apartheid’ Libel,” Kevin Deutsch considers the “talking points” within this document to be “antizionist agitprop — falsehoods these Israel-bashing Jews are using to attack a proud institution that refuses to disown the Jewish national story and factual history.”
• “The Jewish Book Council is a rare lighthouse in the storm for Diaspora Jewish creatives in the post-October 7 world. Israelis are being full-on blacklisted and Jews are being sidelined throughout the arts world, unless they are confessional as-a-Jews who use their voices to denounce their coreligionists. The writers of this open letter want that same discrimination applied to Jews by the Jewish Book Council.” From Seth Mandel’s column on “The AsAJew Writers Guild.”
• “This push toward total erasure, ‘de-centering,’ or universalization within our own stories, holidays and history is a sickness, shared by no other minority group as far as I can tell.” One line from Elissa Wald’s “If I Am Not for Myself.”
• “I read the letter. And there were a lot of moments I could respond to, but I kept coming back to this one: ‘Given this narrowing, many of us refrained from submitting our books for consideration to your awards or declined to engage with your programs.’ I care deeply about Jewish voices being represented in all their complexity. But let me be the fluffy romance author who says this plainly, and without all the linguistic games. You boycotted a system… and then claimed it failed to include you. That’s not exclusion. That’s a choice.” A public comment from Jean Meltzer.
• “The Jewish Book Council, in protecting and promoting Jewish voices, is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing, and they have my complete support,” and more, in a Substack note by Howard Lovy.

As for me, I just keep thinking back to the Haggadah. And one word continues to echo.

Irredeemable.

I’ll conclude with this: While I wait for any additional statement or guidance from JBC itself, I can share a few ways I’ve come up with for all of us, readers and writers, to show support for JBC at this time.

• We can follow and/or amplify the organization on social media.
• We can subscribe to their newsletter.
• We can attend their events in person and/or online.
• We can, if feasible, sign up for (or gift subscriptions to) their NuReads program.
• And (again, if feasible), we can do more.

Thanks for reading.