The beginning of Hamas and Hezbollah’s reign of terror in Israel was observed on Monday. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports that over the past year, according to the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF), 19, 000 unguided rockets have been fired at the Jewish state. We’ve heard countless horrifying stories about the events of October 7. The violent attacks and threats against Jews in our own region, including those on exclusive college campuses and in major cities, have even shocked and outraged us.
You might not be aware of what happened to Elisa Albert when she attempted to perform at the Albany Book Festival next month if you are not a fan of literature or no Jewish.
Although our politics clash ( Albert’s an ardent feminist and passionate leftist ), I’ve long admired the author. She has published three books and a collection of short stories, most recently as a fiction author. But like me, Albert is also an author. Her function is fair, amusing, and disrespectful. She is a woman, mother, ex-New Yorker, Albany native, and doula. Additionally, Elisa Albert is a Jew.
The author, who has supported the Albany Book Festival since its founding in 2017, was scheduled to lower a screen on September 21 as a well-known local author. The program entitled,” Ladies, Coming of Age”, featured three authors in addition to Albert.
Albert received an email from one of the administrators two days prior to the event informing her of” a ridiculous situation developing.” He suggested calling them to talk. ” Basically, not to sugar coat this”, he explained,” Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko do n’t want to be on a panel with a Zionist”.
Aisha Abdel Gawad is a Sunni author in her mid-30s, so it might not come as a surprise that she resigned. However, Lisa Ko, a Taiwanese American, was awarded the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and her debut novel was nominated for a National Book Award. However, the second panelist, crime author Emily Layden, decided to drop out that, as she explained, she wished to “avoid controversy”.
Layden wo n’t win any awards for bravery, but Albert should. She was completely taken aback when she learned that an institution she had worked for years had cancelled her. ” I love them. I’ve been working with them for centuries. I’m like a companion to the Writers Institute”, she told WAMC, Northeast Public Radio.
However, she still volunteered to seem live alone. But the administrators, also cowardly to stand up to love, refused. The Writers Institute at the University of Albany finally chose to ignore the mad hatred presented by Gawad and Ko and declare that the board was canceled due to “unexpected circumstances” rather than providing a detailed explanation to the event members.
Albert considers herself a “proud Jew”, with strong relationships to Israel. Yet before Oct. 7, she wrote boldly about her Jewish personality, including her commitment to the 2005 book, The Contemporary Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt. ” The New York Times Divorce Announcement” is a dramatic, funny and truthful account of the terrible breakup of her perfect-on-paper second marriage.
The author has taken her Hebrew commentary much more seriously and been much more outspoken about her opposition to antisemitism over the past year. In conjunction with their” Hamas ‘ War on Israel: Everything You Need to Know,” Albert published a piece on November 2 in the Jewish online magazine Tablet. The part, which began one day after the attacks, includes reports by Israeli artists, scholars, survivors, and relatives of victims of the evil.
As reports of the withdrawal of” Women, Coming of Age” spread, some Jewish and non-Jewish writers and reporters wrote of their horror and support. However, Albert’s personal Instagram post from Sunday hit the nail on the head. ” Bigotry and love are part of human nature, but it’s our job as writers/entertainers/comedians/artists/intellectuals to overcome that smallness. to identify, identify, and absorb it.
It is unlucky that the other participants and organizers did n’t exhibit the same level of wisdom responsibility. The whole idea of the DEI ( diversity, equity, and inclusion ) program enforced by many art and cultural organisations is one which reportedly celebrates the addition of all people. Except, it seems, Israeli individuals.
In an internet to the online book The Free Press, Albert continued,” The use of the word Zionist as a lawful disparaging is a foul, cruel tactic used to demonize the people of Israel, wherever we reside.” Later she told a Free Press reporter covering her story,” Let’s face it. Zionist is a new word for Jews. Refusing to participate on a panel with a Zionist is a straight-up, bare-assed excuse for antisemitism”.
The arts have been ruled over by this particular initiative, inclusion and tolerance for everyone, aside from those who disagree with our politics. However, it seems like a distant memory right now to think that literature and art should be free of ideology and politics. Many accomplished artists I know no longer produce anything but political posters and flyers. The DEI initiative has no room for dissenters. No one is given a pass, not even staunch feminists and card-carrying liberals.
One day after the panel was scheduled to begin, Albert, who has a characteristic biting wit and the ability to get to the heart of the matter, wrote on Facebook:” If anyone knows or is connected to these two writers, would you let them know we’re always welcome at our Shabbes table. The Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are observed during Elul, which is a time for reflection and reconciliation.
If those three writers and the festival organizers ever again have the chance to sit around a table with Elisa Albert, they could learn a thing or two about diversity and inclusion.
Beth Herman is an artist, essayist, and school docent at The National Gallery of Art. In addition to The Federalist, her essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Legal Times, The Washington Times, and on NPR. When Beth and her husband, author and historian Arthur Herman, are n’t running together when she’s not writing on her easel or writing desk. Check out her blog at releasethebeast. home. blog