Authors can be too Jewish, but not too antisemitic.

Publishers are asking us to remove our Jewish names, sever our connection to Israel, and make our books less Jewish. Meanwhile, obvious antisemitism is treated as a harmless “viewpoint.”

photo: Jason Leung/Unsplash

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This is a guest essay by Jonathan Rosen, a published author and former literary agent.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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In case you missed it, the publishing industry has been a complete cesspool for Jews.

Here are the numbers.

Fiction deal announcements at large presses that mentioned Jews, Judaism, or Israel fell 76 percent from 2023 to 2024. It came back a little in 2025 but still remained 47 percent below 2023 levels.

And if you are Israeli? Well, the battle is even worse. Israeli literary agents report stacks of manuscripts that U.S. and U.K. houses will not even consider.

Even books acquired for six figures before October 7th were sometimes barely promoted afterward.

There have been cases of some agents telling authors to strip Jewish names, characters, or Israel references because they “won’t sell” or because editors “wouldn’t know how to publish this right now.” I have heard a lot of the “right now isn’t the time” excuse. One romance had someone with an Israeli boyfriend and a character named Yael, and it was rejected after an agent advised changing the name to something like Sue.

Agents have dropped Jewish authors by telling them that the agency “can no longer champion” their careers. The Jewish Book Council has logged 350 to more than 400 reports of dropped agents, canceled events, Master of Fine Arts students pushed out for being “Zionists,” and bookstores refusing to stock titles.

Publicists have refused to work with Israeli writers. The phrase “too Jewy” or “too Israel-focused” appears in multiple first-person accounts, both before and after October 7th. I have been told that one myself — that my book was “too Jewish.” Did I mention that the book was based on Jewish mythology?

In May of 2024, a spreadsheet titled “Is your fav author a zionist???” began circulating online. There were color-coded lists of Jewish fiction writers and their perceived Zionism. Their “transgressions” were ranked.

Coordinated one-star campaigns hit Goodreads and Amazon pages, sometimes before publication. Bookstores and festivals canceled events and Jewish authors from appearing on panels.

Earlier this year, PEN America issued “A Silent Moratorium,” based on interviews with dozens of Jewish and Israeli writers, as well as industry professionals, and documented agents going silent, editors asking authors not to submit Israeli work, and a general sense that “we have essentially been hounded out of literary life.”

After that piece, the president of PEN America, Dinaw Mengestu, resigned, basically because the piece was too sympathetic to Jews, and not enough to the people harassing them.

So, does that mean all Jews are facing this issue? No, because there is, apparently, plenty of room for the “As a Jew” Jews.

Who are they? They are the ones who are willing to sell out their people in order to spread lies and propaganda of the Jew-haters. The ones who think that if they play the “Good Jew,” the haters will spare them. Some anti-Zionist Jewish writers continue to find prominent platforms and are sometimes presented as the authentic Jewish voice.

It is like when people point to J Street and say, “See? Those Jews admit all the bad things being done.”

Still, they serve the purpose of the Jew-haters. The “As a Jew” crowd falls in line with them. Mainstream houses have published titles critical of Israel by Jewish authors. As far as Jews go, they are the ones that are the publishing world prefers.

You know who else is getting published? The Jew-haters.

Simon & Schuster is reissuing two novels by Susan Abulhawa this September through Atria. They have also committed to a new novel from her for next year. I will not list the names of the books, but in the announcement, the publisher praised her “signature lyrical voice” and “nuanced characters.”

Let’s take a look at some of the things that the author who has been praised for being “lyrical” and “nuanced” has said in public, repeatedly, and recently.

She called the October 7th massacre a “spectacular moment.” She referred to the people who carried it out as brave and honorable. She has described Jews and Israelis as “Jewish supremacist vampires,” “demons,” “ghouls,” “cockroaches,” “demonic parasites,” “sons of Satan,” and “rootless, soulless ghouls.”

Just trying to find the “lyrical” and “nuanced” language there.

She has written that we live in the time of “Jewish supremacist demons.” She has said Israel is a “cultureless, rootless human aberration” that must be dismantled. She has suggested Jews bear responsibility for the conditions that led to the Holocaust. She has claimed an “extreme overrepresentation of Jews in every branch of government, media, and culture.” She has said Jews should not feel safe.

What her words really are is language of dehumanization.

Simon & Schuster’s response, when pressed, was predictable. The company “unequivocally opposes antisemitism, racism, and all forms of bigotry.” At the same time, “Susan Abulhawa’s personal views are her own and are not reflective of Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, or its employees.” They remain “committed to publishing a broad range of voices and viewpoints.”

Personal views are her own. Her vile and disgusting sentiments toward Jews will be overlooked.

Now, think a moment. But really think. Had she said the things about African-Americans, Asians, or really anyone else, Simon & Schuster would have dropped her in a heartbeat. They would have issued some sort of statement that they do not tolerate racism, and then disavowed her.

But Jews? Well, her opinions are her own, and everyone is entitled to them.

I have worked in this industry. I have seen manuscripts get rejected for far less. I have watched Jewish writers get advised, quietly, to scrub Jewish content from their work. I have watched the same people who lecture endlessly about inclusivity always be willing to exclude one group.

So, forgive me if I do not find the “personal views” disclaimer convincing. Hatred is not just an author’s personal opinion.

The industry has spent years proving it will cancel, boycott, and professionally destroy people for far milder statements about other identities. The rules change when the subject is Jews. It always does.

Simon & Schuster was founded by Jewish immigrants. That makes what they are doing now even more grotesque. They know exactly what this language means. They know the history. They chose to proceed anyway.

A Jewish writer expresses attachment to Israel or simply refuses to denounce it, and suddenly the manuscript is “problematic.” An author calls Jews roaches and vampires, and the publisher calls it a “personal opinion.”

I am a Mexican-American Jew and a former literary agent. I have spent years watching this industry congratulate itself on every book published by “diverse authors,” while making it clearer each day that one particular group is an outcast.

Simon & Schuster can publish whoever they want. That is their right. However, they would not have done so if the “lyrical” and “nuanced” author said those same things against any other group. They do not get to use a boilerplate statement about opposing antisemitism, and hope that absolves them of this condoning of Jew-hate.

When you choose to elevate someone who speaks about Jews this way, you are making a statement of your own. They are okay with it. Let them own it. The rest of us will not forget it.

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