Inclusivity for Some

When I first started writing seriously, and this was way before I got an agent or anything like that. But when I first started writing, I attended some conferences to better learn the craft. I wanted to know everything I could about writing, and improve my abilities.

Some conferences were better than others, but at each one in those early stages, I learned something. I was happy as long as I picked up one thing at each conference.

And one of the first things I learned came from another Jewish author, who told me that publishing has a problem with Jews.

Now, I know there will be people who ask how that’s possible? Aren’t there many Jewish authors, agents, and editors?

Yes, there are.

And yet . . .

There is a problem. To say there isn’t is being dishonest.

It’s there. At that point, it was mostly silent. A kind of known thing among Jewish authors. Don’t make things too Jewish if you want to be sold.

And Israel? Oh, you’d better avoid Israel entirely.

Sure, there were some agents and editors who would try, but for the most part, it was something that you knew would be an uphill battle.

Through the years, I’ve seen that play out. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating. Early on in my writing journey, I had written a Middle-Grade book based on Jewish mythology. A prominent agent told me that I should change it to make it less Jewish in order to sell.

Again, the book was based on Jewish mythology.

This could have been an outlier, but it wasn’t. Have spoken to MANY Jewish authors who have discussed similar experiences.

After that experience, I have seen many things to reaffirm this sentiment. A few years ago, one author was attacked online because she included ‘Birthright’ in her book.

I remember that one vividly. The online pile-on was atrocious.

The worst part for me was not speaking out. I’d had it drummed into me so much to not discuss Israel that I just watched it unfold without saying anything. To this day, I feel so ashamed of myself for that.

I will never let that happen again.

There were other things, such as SCBWI condemning bias against different minorities, but at first staying silent about violence against Jews. Then, when pressured, they finally made a statement, only to then backtrack when some groups got angry for daring to show solidarity with Jews.

And speaking of other groups, how many times has We Need Diverse Books been prompted to include Jews, only for them to ignore it? For some reason, Jews were never counted in their campaigns of promoting minorities.

It’s weird because Jews are very clearly a minority, yet were still excluded. Wonder why that would be?

When I was agenting, I received a couple of rejections that stated, “We recently acquired a Jewish book . . .”. It wasn’t, “We have another Chanukah book”, or Purim, or whatever. It explicitly stated, a Jewish book. I’m sure the editors in question didn’t think about how that sounded before they sent it, yet that’s what was in the email.

Still, all of this was nothing compared to what came after October 7^th. October 7^th was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. It was a day when Jews were slaughtered, tortured, raped, and kidnapped, and what was the response of much of the publishing world?

To boycott and condemn the victims.

Yes, you read that correctly. There were many in the publishing world who saw the news reports and footage of terrorists slaughtering Jews. Taking women, children, and elderly as hostages. These same terrorists raped women. And much of the publishing world decided that they should side with the rapists.

After October 7^th, even before Israel responded, there were many posts on social media by authors I know. Authors I had been friendly with. Authors with big names and big sales. Many in the “inclusive and kind” writing community rationalizing the actions taken by the rapists and murderers. Excusing it. Or, there was the other side of it, where the “Believe all women” crowd accused Jewish women who were raped of lying.

Then the posts came of libels against Israel. These same writers had never posted about atrocities in the Sudan. Syria. China. No, nothing ever about those places. But when it came to Israel, there was a venomous ferocity in their libelous posts.

Wonder why that is?

“No, we’re not antisemitic”, they would say. But yet, Israel was the only place they attacked with such hatred. What is it about Israel that’s different than those other places?

“We don’t hate Jews”, they would say. But Jewish authors would be review-bombed on Goodreads and Amazon.

“No problem with Jews”, they would say, yet Jewish authors reported losing agents, editors, and scheduled book events. Jewish authors were removed from conference panels, or would have other authors leave panels due to Jews being on them. Jewish speakers at conferences also had idiots protesting and disrupting their talks.

The “Everyone who doesn’t agree with us is a Nazi” sect made a spreadsheet of Jewish authors they deemed to be “Zionists” in order to blacklist them. Newsflash to all the people who label everyone who doesn’t share their opinions as Nazis, do you want to take a guess as to who else made lists of Jews for nefarious purposes?

There were many other instances, but let’s touch upon a more recent one.

Abby Jimenez is a best-selling romance author. She has a new book out. On its own, none of that has anything to do with this conversation. However, for the audiobook narration of this new novel, Hachette, the publisher, is using Zachary Webber. I’ve posted about this on Substack notes and Twitter, but Zachary Webber is a Jew-hater. Oh, yeah, I meant Zionists, the term all the Jew-haters use to hide behind. So, on one of his Instagram reels, Webber put down how the Jews, oh, sorry, Zionists should kill themselves.

Never mind that the OVERWHELMING majority of Jews identify themselves as Zionists.

When Jewish readers expressed concern on Jimenez’s private Facebook page, she deleted their comments and kicked them out of the group.

Would she have done that to Black authors who complained about racism? To Asian authors concerned with anti-Asian hate?

We know the answer.

I’ve written to Hachette to voice displeasure, but no one has responded. I believe Hachette should be inundated with emails and calls inquiring about this, because I’m trying to picture a scenario where someone could tell ANY other religious or ethnic group to kill themselves, where there wouldn’t be repercussions. Actually, I can’t picture a scenario where a person could tell ANYONE to go kill themselves, where there wouldn’t be repercussions. But it’s apparent that Hachette doesn’t care if one of their audiobook narrators talks about wanting Jews dead.

As I stated earlier, there’s a problem in publishing with how Jews are treated, but the problem is, no one seems to care.

Publishing claims to be about inclusivity, but it’s that inclusivity doesn’t extend everywhere.

They should just come out with a slogan that says:

Publishing: It’s NOT for everyone.