Some of us here at The Australian Jewish News haven’t spoken to old colleagues and non-Jewish friends since the October 7 massacre. We’ve been silenced by them; our hurt hasn’t been acknowledged and we’ve seen them justify what’s going on in Israel and around the world.
One AJN colleague approached a mainstream media outlet to submit an opinion piece on the plight of Israeli women who had been raped, tortured and kidnapped. Emails were repeatedly ignored. Radio silence.
But on our work front, we’re largely protected.
We write about our community, for our community, from within our community.
Our voices have been heard.
Many of our fellow creatives haven’t been so fortunate.
Six months ago, AJN journalists Sharyn Kolieb and Bruce Hill spoke to three Jewish creatives about their experiences with antisemitism post-October 7.
It’s sad to see that not much has changed.
When The AJN approached the Jewish arts community this time around, there was an influx of responses. Yet there were also many who stayed silent and most requested to be kept anonymous.
This speaks volumes.
I’m not sure what’s worse – the steady stream of examples or the fact that many can’t or won’t come forward, despite the promise of anonymity, for fear of retribution, personally and professionally.
Perhaps because some of the stories that have been shared are so atrocious.
One author explained that her book went to print the week of the October 7 massacre. She immediately got on the phone to her publishers to discuss how to move forward.
“We hadn’t gone into Gaza yet so they were very respectful, saying it will be fine, that things will calm down,” the author told me over the phone. “I was on a Zoom call with all the executives saying, ‘we’re so sorry for what’s going on’ and ‘we’re so sorry for how you must be feeling’. I just kept thinking to myself that the sentiments were going to change. We all knew it was short-lived.”
And short lived it was. A couple of weeks prior to her book being published, it was announced on the publisher’s Facebook page to, as described by the author, a “bombardment of trolling”.
“I’m paraphrasing here but they basically told me it shouldn’t have overtly Jewish themes or characters.”
Images such as a cat doing a Nazi salute with a swastika on its arm, and comments like “this story is as true as the story of the 40 Israhelli [sic] beheaded babies and raped women” and “disgusting propaganda, from the apartheid regime in Israel, no normal people support ethnic cleansing …”
She had to call the publisher and request that it all be taken down, saying it became a dialogue on Gaza and nothing to do with the book’s subject matter. She was also told that perhaps she needed to change the cover of her book in order to find further distribution.
That same author also dealt with discrimination on the television front. When a screenwriter wanted to option the rights for TV, they were advised that “nothing Jewish is getting up on Netflix”. She recalls being told that even Spielberg’s not getting anything through.
If Spielberg is struggling, what hope do the rest of us have?
Author and speaker, Lee Kofman said she has been wary of the publishing world since October 7, particularly following the Stop the Genocide in Gaza letter addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke published in Overland, which contextualised the massacre and was signed by thousands of artists.
“Too many people I know signed it,” she wrote to The AJN. “So, I haven’t been trying to publish anything this last year. But I also heard of several Australian Jewish writers being told that ‘now is not the time for Jewish stories’. I did reach out to one literary magazine with which I had a longstanding connection after they published an anti-Israel article in the early days of the war, suggesting that they publish some progressive but not anti-Zionist Jewish voices for balance and they said they’d consider it, but then never followed through with this, instead issuing a one-sided anti-Israel statement.”
Earlier this year, Kofman told The AJN that the arts community is “more antisemitic than I ever suspected”, explaining that she was called a genocidal maniac Zionist online and even had people asking if she worked for Mossad. She also shared that she once had to teach writing with security. She explained that in the arts world, there is an almost instinctive bias, with many automatically viewing Israel negatively. Often, as we all know, without doing much of their own research.
Kofman also explained that many organisations that have employed her teaching services in the past, and with whom she has very strong ties, haven’t booked her, despite her courses usually selling out. She said that she is regularly invited to participate in Australian literary festivals, even when she doesn’t have a book out; however, “this year the only writers’ festivals I was invited to were Jewish”.
On the topic of festivals, some authors have shared that their publishers have championed other voices but not theirs.
“They try to get their books into every festival they can, but they’re not putting me forward,” one author said. “They have promoted another author saying that they’re so proud that their wonderful writer is at the festival, but nothing about me speaking at the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival.”
Another author who agreed to speak to The AJN on the condition of anonymity said she was experiencing antisemitism even before October 7, which worsened following the massacre.
“I met my deadline with a manuscript. They purchased it because they were really excited about the characters and the Jewish themes, the diversity that it represented. They were expecting it to be a smash hit,” she said, explaining that she then received a message saying the publisher wanted to chat. “It sounded a bit like dating and someone’s like ‘we need to talk’,” she joked, although it’s no joking matter.
The author was told that the manuscript was great, her voice was great, but bookshops didn’t really want to promote Jewish voices. Already, the publisher was struggling to get her previous book into spaces that were usually quite open to Jewish stories.
“She said let’s see if the tide changes, we’ll put it in the freezer and maybe we can publish it when people are really excited about Jewish stories again,” the author recalled. “And then October 7 happened.”
That same author explained that she’d seen bookshops that had previously supported her with book signings and events, liking and commenting on horrifically antisemitic posts shared on social media by the likes of Matt Chun.
“I felt blindsided by that,” she admitted. “My publisher basically said, ‘we love your voice, we love what you have to offer, please will you write us something else.’ I’m paraphrasing here but they basically told me it shouldn’t have overtly Jewish themes or characters.”
The author explained that people around her tried to placate the issue, saying it was just because Muslim voices were hot. “Muslim voices should always be in. And Jewish voices too. It shouldn’t be one or the other,” she said. “Our identity is not a commodity, it’s not a trend. This is our lives.”
Horrifically, the author explained that even her agent, from whom she has since split, was posting things on the October 7 anniversary, including that Israel was bombing and killing Palestinians. Also, an editor she had worked with posted something in support of pro-Palestinian activist Randa Abdel-Fattah.
“I reached out to explain that this woman is teaching kids to chant Intifada, and what that phrase means to me, and she never wrote back to that,” the author recalled, before admitting that had she known this was going to happen, she likely would have changed her name.
“I’m so happy I wrote my books, but I would have published under a different name. I’ve held back on what I’ve wanted to say online.”
When asked whether she’d still push to get published, she paused. “Jewish stories, not right now. But yes, in the future, I’m going to go really hard.”
“Our identity is not a commodity, it’s not a trend. This is our lives.”
Unfortunately, it’s not just authors who are feeling the extreme antisemitic heat.
Justine Kuran is a visual artist who primarily uses paper to create exquisite designs. One design she has recently completed is a collaboration with Eitan Chitayat, the writer behind the I’m That Jew movement.
Kuran shared that prior to October 7, she was a staple at art fairs and exhibitions. And then the National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) posted a statement similar to the Overland one, and in Kuran’s words, making it “undeniably clear that Zionists were unwelcome in the arts community and going forward they would only be sourcing ‘ethical funding’, meaning no more ‘Zio money'”.
Kuran said as a member of NAVA, she felt sick to her stomach.
“Since then I have been outspoken in my support (though not uncritical) of Israel and as a result I have lost over 10,000 followers on social media, my commissions have dried up, and I can’t and won’t do exhibitions anymore because I can’t get the necessary artist insurance from NAVA now that I’m no longer a member, and the expense of doing these art fairs only to have potential clients scroll through my social media and decide they dislike my voice more than they like my art, is just not worth it,” Kuran told The AJN.
To add insult to injury, Kuran was also one of the doxxed Jewish artists. As a result, she has had to completely pivot not just her art to make a living, but also the way she views herself.
“Before I was an artist who happened to be Jewish, now I am just a Jewish artist who has to rely solely on my community for work,” she explained. “As grateful as I am for the support, it has been devastating to not be doing the art I really want to do.”
The AJN has also been approached by creatives who have had professional events cancelled, whether that’s book launches, art exhibitions or panel speaking sessions. In one report, an artist shared that she was invited to be part of a NAVA session at an exhibition where her work was being shown. Shortly after accepting the gig, things began to unravel and ultimately, the whole panel discussion was cancelled. In email conversations with event organisers, it was implied that the decision to cancel was due to alleged comments made in a Jewish WhatsApp group – the members of which had been doxxed – that the organisation believed could be traced back to the artist.
Just earlier this month, Deborah Conway detailed in The Australian how she continues to be cancelled. Security has been deployed to events she was featuring at, charities that hired her to perform suddenly cancelled her appearances, interviews she had done didn’t go to air. But mostly, Conway said, there’s the silence. “The events that simply don’t materialise though you were sure they would,” she wrote.
While many creatives feel alienated and abandoned, we can all take comfort in knowing that we are not alone. Not here in Australia and not around the world. Entire book festivals have been cancelled, book club polls have been deleted because a Jewish author has been involved, theatres are being left empty. Even Hollywood celebrities like Stranger Things star Brett Gelman’s book event was cancelled in LA due to “antisemitic intimidation”.
It’s not something that we ever thought we would see, especially since the Jewish community has always been one to support the arts.
The Jewish community has always been part of the creative world and has always supported the creative world. Yet the creative world seems to have turned its back on us.
“Before I was an artist who happened to be Jewish, now I am just a Jewish artist who has to rely solely on my community for work…”
But the beauty of the Jewish community is the support we show each other.
For Kofman, she admitted that while it has been a very tough time to be a Jewish creative, she actually feels inspired.
“Now it is more urgent than ever for me to create,” she said. “We really do need Jewish stories out there to ‘re-humanise’ ourselves.”
As Conway so eloquently wrote in The Australian, “I never felt I could do anything other than stand my ground against the unreason. It is self-defence against insanity.”
If you would like to share your story with The AJN, please email jabelsohn@jewishnews.net.au. Emails will be kept anonymous if desired.
comments