Since Oct. 7, there has been much discussion surrounding antisemitism in the North American literary realm. In the winter of 2024, the literary journal Guernica imploded after publishing an essay by an Israeli writer that expressed sympathy for both Israelis and Palestinians. Not long after, a list circulated, titled “is your fav author a zionist???” A few months ago, there were a flurry of articles over the backlash toward author RF Kuang—who is not Jewish herself and has supported BDS—for including an Israeli character in a recent novel. 

This is a world I know well. I hold an MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry from the Bennington Writing Seminars, in Vermont. Over the past fifteen years, I have published over a hundred pieces of original poetry, prose, and translations of Yiddish literature, in North American journals—among them Guernica. I often wonder, when trying to publish book-length collections, both of my own work and of my translations of Yiddish poetry, if antisemitism and anti-Zionism are getting in the way. This is ironic, because the State of Israel is not particularly known for positive feelings toward the Yiddish language—quite the opposite. The reality of history, however, is that most of the writers I translate lived at some point in either pre-state Mandatory Palestine or in Israel, even if their Yiddish writing was largely seen as undermining Zionism.  

On the other hand, though I have both witnessed and experienced antisemitism in the literary world—before Oct. 7 and after—I have also had more success as a writer than most. While over the years, I have racked........

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