Writing is one of my greatest passions. As have many, I discovered this passion as a product of a childhood suffused with books. At home, at school, in the public library, as I walked from the bus stop (!!), under my blankets in bed with a flashlight, wherever and wherever I could. I read my way through the childrens’ section of the library and went straight upstairs to the adult stacks. I found Bulfinch's Mythology, Sagan’s Cosmos, and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I read (again and again) the encyclopaedia that we had at home. I far outran my classmates learning the historical books of the Tanakh, like Judges, Kings, and Chronicles, and quickly grew to love and appreciate the poetry of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Psalms. But as I grew older I found that all of these millions of words had given me the tools and much of the knowledge that would form and sustain my ideas, beliefs, and confidence. And as I grew older still, the passion I had for Israel and the Jewish people grew into activism, organizing, and quickly a calling, a passion.
What followed was an exploration of how to write effectively, as I was quickly learning that effectiveness is a key measure of activist and advocate writing. I found George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, and learned to appreciate the genius of writers such as Christopher Hitchens, who I fundamentally disagreed with, and Charles Krauthammer, with whom I shared many perspectives. I grew to understand the methods and research of military historians like John Keegan and Stephen Ambrose, and the well informed polemics of Victor Davis Hanson. I came to appreciate the elegance of Thomas Mann, the philosophy of Huxley, and the clarity of Sartre.
And so I found I had a voice, and the tools with which to use it. I’ve written for newspapers, blogs, journals and more. Speeches, essays, lessons and Torah sermons. I’m doing my best to write two novels (the hardest writing I’ve ever done). In all of my writing experience, I’ve only once come up against what Jewish writers worldwide are experiencing right now.
When I was at the University of Toronto in the late eighties/early nineties, the editor in chief of The Varsity was an anti-Zionist who is now an internationally ‘acclaimed’ author and activist, who continues to pursue an agenda aimed at delegitimizing the self determination and sovereignty of her own people. No matter how well reasoned, well written, or well supported, none of the many pieces I wrote were published unscathed, and many were rejected outright.
Today, Jewish writers are being excluded, silenced, canceled and disappeared from conferences, bookshelves and the social media that supports the industry. I wrote recently of my experience at The Strand in NYC. Yesterday I was listening to Zibby Owens, Compiler of the wonderful ‘On Being Jewish Now’ describe her experience in a bookstore where she had come to sign books, but was deliberately refused social media coverage by the store’s own media manager, who stood and watched but took not a single picture, though others were covered the same day.
Jewish authors have been at the heart of western literature for generations. Now they are being deplatformed, hunted and chased out of venues, rejected outright by publishers, and almost uniformly silenced and ignored by their peers.
We are the People of the Book. We literally hold the pen that has written the stories of the world. This disgusting displacement cannot and will not stand. In the coming weeks, we at Federation will be bringing each of you and our entire community an opportunity to connect, to fight back, to make Jewish voices heard and the Jewish people proud. Stay tuned. Be a part of what we’re planning! Am HaSefer Lo Mefached! The People of the Book do not Fear!