Albany Book Festival Cancels Panel With Jewish Moderator, Citing ‘Impasse’ Over Her Zionism

An author panel at an Albany book festival on Saturday was canceled after organizers said two panelists refused to share the stage with the “Zionist” moderator.

Elisa Albert, who is Jewish, was scheduled to moderate a panel at the Albany Book Festival on Saturday, titled “Girls, Coming of Age.” But on Thursday, she received an email from a festival organizer saying the event had been canceled: Two of the three panelists — authors Lisa Ko and Aisha Abdel Gawad — declined to sit on the panel with Albert because they didn’t want to appear alongside a “Zionist.” The third panelist was to be Emily Layden.

Albert said the cancellation has been part of his experience since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” Albert told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday. “I was very outspoken from the beginning and I lost many friends. I’ve seen my entire professional life radically changed. I’m not surprised at all. I’ve seen all sorts of people behaving in all sorts of ways that are exactly the same kind of bigotry, complicity, fear – all of that.”

Albert, who lives in Albany, first learned of the jury members’ objections Thursday afternoon, when she received an email from Mark Koplik, the associate director of the New York State Writers Institute, which organizes the festival.

“We are facing a crazy situation and would like to talk on the phone,” Koplik wrote in a message obtained by JTA.

“To sum up, without wanting to sugarcoat things, Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko do not want to be on a panel with a ‘Zionist,'” he added. “We are taken by surprise, somewhat disconcerted, and we want to talk about it.”

On Thursday evening, Albert was informed by Paul Grondahl, director of the Writers Institute, that the event had been cancelled.

“We regret this situation, which was beyond our control,” Grondahl wrote in an email obtained by JTA. “It is unfortunate for everyone involved.”

Grondahl added: “I wish it was different. We will find a way to bring these issues that we have discussed to the forefront in a more in-depth, more thoughtful, more carefully planned event with intentionality and context.”

The cancellation of the panel is the latest in a long line of literary events canceled or canceled due to conflicts over the Israel-Hamas war and Zionism. Activists have sought to hamper the careers of authors they deem “Zionist,” many of whom have Jewish heritage.

In one notable recent example, a launch event for Jewish journalist Joshua Leifer’s new book, “Tablets Shattered,” at a Brooklyn bookstore in August was canceled because one of its employees objected to the “Zionist” rabbi moderating the event.

Some of those who have been criticized have not publicly expressed support for Israel. Gabrielle Zevin, author of the best-selling book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, for example, faced calls to cancel her show when she had said nothing publicly about Israel or the war.

Albert, for her part, has been a staunch defender of Israel since the war began nearly a year ago. On Instagram, she has aggressively and frequently posted messages in support of Israel and against Hamas and those she perceives as supporting it, including pro-Palestinian protesters in the United States, whom she has called “apologists for terrorism.”

On Friday afternoon, after the cancellation, she appeared to accept the cancellation, posting an image of her latest book — “The Snarling Girl,” a collection of personal essays published last month — with the caption: “This is the perfect time to promote Zio literature!” She then added a selfie with the caption “Friendly local Zio bitch” over it.

Ko, Abdel Gawad and Layden did not respond to requests for comment, and as of Friday afternoon, their social media profiles did not mention the cancellation. But Ko has been involved in numerous pro-Palestinian activism efforts since the war began on October 7, 2023. On November 6, she announced that she would host a panel titled “Unlocking Our Voices: Writing against genocide” later this month.

She described the event as “a space to clear our throats + focus our thoughts on action + solidarity.” She added: “Let’s free Palestine.”

As of Friday, Ko’s online schedule still included the panel’s list of events. The festival has also not issued a public statement about the panel’s cancellation, though news has spread on social media. The festival’s latest post on the social platform X, which does not address the dispute, has drawn more than a dozen responses condemning the decision.

In a statement to JTA, Koplik criticized the jury members who opposed Albert and expressed dismay at the cancellation.

“We unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism,” he said. “We would never consider removing Elisa, and we stood up to those who wanted to remove her. We no longer had a panel to moderate. We fully support Elisa’s expression of outrage and disappointment. We believe in civil dialogue and we condemn intolerance in all its forms. I cannot tell you how sad and upsetting this is for me personally.”

In his statement, Koplik also wrote that “one participant declined to participate and another decided not to as a show of support.”

Albert told JTA that she had hoped that festival organizers would issue a statement about the incident and was frustrated that they had not. She said she had proposed an alternative to the planned panel, in which she would appear alone, without her fellow panelists, to discuss their objections to her with anyone in the audience. But the festival declined.

“They said, ‘No, that’s not fair. People are going to be offended. This is a panel about young girls coming of age. Nobody came to talk about anti-Semitism or the Middle East conflict,’” Albert said. “And I thought, ‘Well, shit, this conference has been hijacked by bigoted people.’”