Brooklyn bookstore to fire employee who nixed event with progressive Jewish author and ‘Zionist’ moderator

The owner of a bookstore in Brooklyn that has drawn widespread backlash for canceling an event with a Jewish author said he was not involved in the decision and is firing the employee responsible.

Daniel Power, the owner of Powerhouse Arena, told the New York Jewish Week that he would try to reschedule the event.

“It’s hideous, it’s uncalled for, and it was completely unauthorized,” Power said, adding that the employee “is going to be terminated today.”

The bookstore, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, was set to host a launch event Tuesday evening for “Tablets Shattered,” a new book on American Jewish life by Joshua Leifer, a Jewish journalist who has written for a range of left-wing publications including Jewish Currents and +972.

But shortly before the start time, Leifer said he learned the event had been canceled because its moderator, Rabbi Andy Bachman, is a Zionist. A photo of the bookstore showed an announcement taped to the window that said the event was canceled “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

The bookstore “told me they were unwilling to host the conversation with Andy because they would not permit a Zionist on the premises,” wrote Leifer on X. “My biggest worry was about synagogues not wanting to host me. I didn’t think it would be bookstores in Brooklyn that would be closing their doors.”

I wrote this book to explore debates within American Jewish life, which of course includes many people who identify as Zionists. My biggest worry was about synagogues not wanting to host me. I didn’t think it would be bookstores in Brooklyn that would be closing their doors. pic.twitter.com/tcUOcXw2Ge

— Joshua Leifer (@joshualeifer) August 21, 2024

The cancellation is the latest instance since Oct. 7 of Jews facing isolation in the arts world over Israel, and stands out because — while Bachman does identify as a Zionist — both he and Leifer are critics of the Israeli government. A range of Jewish leaders and elected officials in the city called the cancellation antisemitic.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive who is the city’s highest-ranking Jewish official and who has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza, called the decision “utterly outrageous.”

“You’ve allowed this Zionist (i.e. me) on your premises many times to buy books — but now you won’t let us speak there?” Lander posted.

Bachman — formerly the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope — said he was dismayed about the term “Zionist” becoming a pejorative.

“I believe that Israel should exist so therefore I’m a Zionist,” Bachman, who now works as a consultant, said in an interview. “I think what’s happened and what’s so disturbing is that the word ‘Zionism’ has been understood only as a term that means racist and militaristic and genocidal, and I refuse to allow people to define Zionism in that way, and I refuse myself to be defined in that way.”

Power, the bookstore owner, agreed that the cancellation was wrong, and said he was not informed of the decision before it happened. He described the cancellation as the work of a rogue employee, whom he declined to identify. Initially, in a post on X, Power said Leifer’s publicist had canceled the event after speaking with the employee.

“This staffer, for reasons we do not know, Googled the moderator and decided to say something to the publicist,” Power said. “It’s not our normal procedure to question anything once it’s been signed up. If the events coordinator felt the book didn’t fit our profile we would have never scheduled it for an event.”

Power said that the staffer did not mention Zionism when he first asked her about it, and that he confronted her again after reading about the cancellation in a New York Post article. Leifer, who did not respond to a request for comment, provided the Post with an audio recording of the encounter with the staffer, who reportedly says on the tape, “We don’t want a Zionist on our stage.”

Power said, “I read it in the New York Post. I’m like, ‘What the f—?’ And she goes, ‘I might’ve said it, I don’t remember.’”

The publishing company, Dutton, an affiliate of Penguin Random House, did not respond to a request for comment.

Power said that the employee was due to leave for a job at another bookstore next week, and said that she may have been motivated by “sabotage.” He pointed out that the bookstore has previously hosted Jewish and Zionist authors, including a March event with Naama Shefi, who writes about Jewish food and runs a culinary institute in Tel Aviv.

Powerhouse also has locations in Park Slope and Industry City in Brooklyn. Power said the stores had made an effort to display both pro- and anti-Israel books, and discourage staff from promoting their own politics.

“We welcome people of all faiths, all manners of thought, philosophies,” he said. “But we do have a lot of young people who believe it’s their right to express their political opinions inside the retail environment. I’ve worked hard since the war began — like, ‘We cannot do this.’”

He added, “If you go to a restaurant or a deli they serve you no matter who you are. A bookstore is no different but young people tend to think that it’s different because it’s a retailer of ideas that are inside book covers.”

Bachman faced a similar situation in December, when he was heckled at Hunter College while discussing “Israelism,” a film that features extensive criticism of Israel.

“Jews, like every other nation on earth with a homeland, have a right to self determination, and that’s what makes me a Zionist,” he said. “I don’t agree with the policies of the current government, I don’t agree with the way they’re waging the war. That doesn’t mean I disavow or deny Israel’s right to exist.”

Controversy over the Israel-Hamas war has embroiled other literary spaces since Oct. 7. A viral list targeting “Zionist” authors circulated online, a Jewish sponsor of the National Book Awards withdrew from the ceremony due to an effort to call for a ceasefire, and PEN America canceled an annual festival due to disputes over the war.

The term ‘Zionist” has become pejorative in parts of the American left, with progressive groups, business owners and college students actively seeking to exclude “Zionists” from public spaces. An overwhelming majority of American Jews identify with Israel, polls have shown.

Jewish community leaders and political officials in New York City condemned the Powerhouse incident as antisemitic.

New York Rep. Dan Goldman said he was a friend of Bachman and called the incident “unacceptable antisemitism, plain and simple.”

New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, an outspoken supporter of Israel, tweeted, “The far left is making “Zionists” (i.e. most Jews) the exception to progressivism’s rule against discrimination.”

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, a prominent progressive Jewish community leader and the CEO of the liberal rabbinic group T’ruah, called the cancellation “completely ridiculous.”

“It is antisemitic to demand that Jews disavow Israel before being allowed into your space,” Jacobs said on X.

“Hateful, shameful, and harmful conduct by [Powerhouse Books],” said Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. “Every New Yorker should be outraged by this vile and venomous antisemitism because it is an affront to every New Yorker.”