Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Jewish people in the book industry have noticed a growing incidence of ‘soft boycotting’, writes Eleanor Steafel for the Telegraph. Here’s an extract:
Sometimes, discrimination is undeniable. Sometimes it’s so loud, so overt and perpetrated in such plain sight that you can only hope anyone witnessing it musters the courage to speak up. Much of the time, though, it is a curiously slippery thing. It happens in the shadows, weeding its way into small exchanges and unspoken decisions so that it’s impossible to ever pin down an anecdote or build a case. Harder still when to call it out could mean risking professional relationships – whole careers, even.
Such is the experience of so many Jewish people in British publishing today. In interviews with The Telegraph, authors, agents, scouts and publishers spoke of the growing sense of discomfort and ostracisation they have experienced in their industry since the October 7 attacks. Many say a quiet but pervasive anti-Semitism – a sense of “Jews don’t count”, as one author put it – has begun to creep in.
For some, it was there even before the war; the past 14 months have merely shone a light on a problem that was already lurking. Others say this period has marked a sea change in their industry, as authors with Jewish-centric stories have struggled to sell their work, agents have battled to convince cautious publishers to take on books which, not so long ago, they would have scooped up, and editors seem to find reasons not to take on titles that could cause conflict at an acquisition meeting.
It all adds up to what many describe as a culture of “soft boycotting” which has taken hold, whereby Jewish stories are left untold, Jewish agents are quietly dropped, and Jewish authors find themselves persona non grata amongst their peers. Underpinning it all is a growing sense of isolation. Or, as one literary agent put it, “a feeling [that you are] not part of a community that you’ve been part of for many years”.
“The general feeling of this year is of feeling outnumbered, isolated … this culture of soft boycotting is really hard to prove and makes you sound paranoid,” says another agent. “I’ve sent out two proposals by Jewish authors and I’m just not able to sell them. Neither have written books about the conflict.”
Occasionally, she has been able to sell books by Jewish authors “where their Jewishness is not present or out there”. But if the book has an overtly Jewish theme? “It definitely feels like it’s much harder.”
Many feel this kind of passive boycott is often impossible to call out. People don’t just come out and say they won’t take on a Jewish or Israeli author, they make a careful excuse. One author (who also works in publishing, as an editor) has been trying to pitch a novel she wrote which centres around Jewish working class Londoners. It isn’t about the conflict in the Middle East – it’s a British story. When she first sent it out soon after the pandemic, the response was “very positive” though no one picked it up. When she tried to find out why, the responses tended to be a version of: “I wouldn’t know how to market it”.
“It felt like there was a cautiousness around it being potentially niche, even though I don’t think it particularly was,” she says. “It felt like there wasn’t a willingness to take it on.”
She is realistic about the fact that not every book can make it through to acquisitions, but had a sense that one of the reasons it wasn’t getting past publishers was that “it was too Jewish”. “By the time it went out the second time I was like this is just never going to happen.”
She sent it out again after October 7 but had little hope that in the wake of the attacks a Jewish centric book would be picked up. “Maybe if we’d have sent it in November then it might have been slightly different, but by the time we sent it out it was the new year and I just had absolutely no faith. No one is going to touch it. It’s not about Israel but it touches on the issues very lightly and in a very nuanced way, which I think is another thing people are not open to – nuance.”
The experience has left her feeling thoroughly deflated. “It’s just a kind of dismissal. A ‘Jews don’t count’ vibe more than anti-Semitism.”
Worth reading in full.
