The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

I’m currently searching for an agent to represent a novel that I spent many years writing. Its main character is a rabbi who has begun to question his faith, against the backdrop of a community crisis caused by a Muslim man who refuses to sell back the community’s chametz after Pesach unless the rabbi condemns Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

So I was taken aback to read a July 9th report from the free speech organization PEN America about the current exclusion of Jewish writers from publishing.

One author is quoted as saying that her book had a character named Yael, and she was told it wouldn’t sell unless that name was changed to something that didn’t sound Jewish. One of the agents I’d most like to represent me is quoted as saying that she used to sell 5-10 literary novels in the US each year, but since Oct. 7 she hasn’t sold even one.

If that’s the case, I asked myself whether there is even any hope for my book. But I assumed that free speech proponents such as PEN, now that they’ve acknowledged this discrimination, would proceed to try to do something about it.

After all, PEN’s motto is to stand at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression. Now is exactly when authors like me need their help.

But it turns out, not so. In fact, rather than announce a campaign to help promote the work of Jewish authors, the President of PEN resigned. In stating his view, he appears to mean PEN should be supporting cultural boycotts.

On July 15, PEN released a follow-up statement, evidently intended to defend itself from criticism for running the original article, reminding readers of its long history of defending pro-Palestinian speech and activism on free-expression grounds. I expected that PEN would then express at least that same commitment to defending Jewish writers facing discrimination.

Instead, PEN stressed that the article bringing this discrimination to light was intended only to acknowledge the experiences of Jewish and Israeli writers. PEN made clear that it opposes efforts by governments to restrict the right to boycott.

But if PEN documents discrimination against writers while also insisting that it is not criticizing the practices causing that discrimination, what exactly was the purpose of documenting it to begin with? And even if people have the right to engage in boycotts, isn’t PEN’s mission supposed to be to defend the writers who are being suppressed?

PEN also mentioned in its follow-up statement the numerous instances they’ve defended the free speech rights of pro-Palestinian voices. They say they’ve translated and published the work of Palestinian writers in Gaza and spent half a million dollars in direct emergency support to Palestinian writers and artists. There is nothing about any of them being required to condemn Hamas or its Oct. 7 attack as a condition for this assistance, and some of the individuals they mention defending clearly don’t.

Yet PEN’s article also tells of Jewish authors being required to make political stands against Israel or make statements against Zionism as a condition for having their work published or being allowed to speak. It does not say it’s opposed, let alone demand that this end.

If my fiction doesn’t sell, perhaps I’ve found another subject worth exploring in a book: the treatment of Jewish writers in a post-October 7 world.