Pro-Israel Stance Derails Brett Gelman’s Book Tour

Actor and comedian Brett Gelman’s literary debut is a collection of short stories, each focused on a Jewish person in a distinct stage of life. The Terrifying Realm of the Possible charts a path from anxiety-ridden childhood to the afterlife, laced with plenty of introspection and dark humor.

It’s not political. Nevertheless, Gelman’s book tour has suffered at least four canceled stops ahead of the title’s March 19 publication. Some hosts say they are concerned about security. But Gelman has publicly wondered whether deep-seated antisemitism due to his high-profile advocacy for Israel is the culprit.

“These are the screams of bullies,” he told Los Angeles magazine. “Maybe they’re worried that a gang is going to, you know, march outside and maybe throw a trash can through the window, but I had said that was not going to happen.”

Gelman, featured in Stranger Things (co-star Noah Schnapp weathered his own controversy over support for Israel) and Fleabag, offered to provide additional security for his events.

Still, Los Angeles’ BookSoup cited threats as the reason for canceling Gelman’s March 27 event, calling any speculation about Gelman’s Jewish identity or support for Israel as a “gross” mischaracterization. “The threats and expressed concerns had escalated, and amidst the current charged environment the event became a safety risk we weren’t willing to take,” the store said in a statement posted to X.

Also gone: Gelman’s book events in Winnetka, Ill., and San Francisco, where Book Passage co-owner Bill Petrocelli said the store canceled Gelman’s event due to “intemperate and ill-advised remarks that he made against some other ethnic and social groups,” according to The Jewish News of Northern California. Petrocelli did not elaborate.

“These 2 venues have pulled out due to antisemitic intimidation, but I have not,” Gelman posted Feb. 11 on X. “I won’t be silenced and neither will the Jewish people.” Organizers also cancelled Gelman’s book event at New York’s The Town Hall planned for March 19.

It’s the latest in a string of literary incidents that are testing the limits of free speech and amplifying the muddy lines separating criticism of the Israeli government and antisemitism. The Jewish Book Council recently announced it would begin tracking antisemitic incidents.

“The hope is that, by report­ing and record­ing anti­semitism in the lit­er­ary world, we can help to put sup­port sys­tems in place for those affected,” the council said in a Feb. 14 statement announcing the initiative.

To be clear, writers and others expressing solidarity with Palestinian people have also faced cancellations and job loss. Organizers at the Frankfurt Book Fair postponed an Oct. 20 awards ceremony for Palestinian author Adania Shibli. The 92^nd Street Y pulled an Oct. 21 event that would have featured Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen because he signed an open letter that called for a stop to Israel’s “indiscriminate” violence against Gaza. Artforum fired editor David Velasco after the magazine’s Oct. 19 open letter supporting Palestine failed to mention the Oct. 7 attacks.

Yet for some critics, any connection whatsoever with Israel warrants harsh sanctions. FairyLoot, a fantasy book-subscription platform, received a flurry of complaints and calls for a boycott in December after it announced a special edition of Gabrielle Zevin’s 2022 bestseller Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. The book features a character who is Israeli; Zevin also spoke about the book to Hadassah, the women’s Zionist philanthropic organization founded in the U.S. in 1912.

Lists circulating on X call out “Zionist” authors such as Percy Jackson creator Rick Riordan, who said in an Oct. 17 blog post that he was appalled by Hamas’ attacks and also the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza; Newbery and Carnegie medalist Neil Gaiman, who said Israel has a right to exist and also said Palestine should exist and all killing should stop; and fantasy author Sarah J. Maas, who said in a years-old interview that marking Shabbat at the Western Wall in college was full of “joy and energy.”

Jewish author Lisa Barr received a flurry of one-star Goodreads reviews after she posted on Instagram about the Oct. 7 attacks and called for Hamas to release the hostages. “A whole group is trying to tank our books,” Barr told Tablet of the review-bombing affecting her and other Jewish authors. Barr is a co-founder of The Artists Against Antisemitism, which raised more than $120,000 in an online auction to support college students fighting antisemitism on campus.

In November, National Book Awards sponsor Zibby Media pulled its support from the group’s awards ceremony over rumored plans for statements in support of Palestine at the event, put on by the National Book Foundation.

“I wanted the NBF to prevent a bullying atmosphere where speeches could be used to intimidate based on religious views,” company CEO Zibby Owens wrote in a Substack post explaining her decision.

“I asked (NBF Director Ruth Dickey) what the plan would be, for example, should the first three winners get on stage and say antisemitic things. She said, ‘That’s a good question,’ and that the board was still meeting but that in their 100+ year history, they had never censored any speeches for any reason.”

A Jan. 31 protest disrupted a Los Angeles book event for Jewish comedian Moshe Kasher’s new memoir, aimed at his interviewer, Mayim Bialik. The Big Bang Theory star and former Jeopardy! host has been an ardent and public supporter of Israel, especially after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Protesters from Writers Against the War on Gaza used a loudspeaker to repeat the names of Palestinian writers and poets killed in the conflict. Security eventually removed the protesters, and the event continued.

Two award-winning novelists broke ties with sponsor PEN America before the event, citing Bialik’s strong support for Israel as well as the event’s co-sponsor, Writers Bloc Presents. That reading-series nonprofit cancelled an October appearance by author Nathan Thrall, whose book chronicles a Palestinian father’s desperate search for his young son after a bus crash that sends victims to hospitals in both  Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On March 10, literary magazine Guernica retracted a personal essay from an Israeli writer who described her conflicted feelings about the war. Joanna Chen detailed her volunteer work ferrying Gazans to Israeli hospitals, her support for an Israeli family who lost three members to the Hamas attacks, and a text full of horrors from a friend in Gaza.

Multiple writers and editors severed ties with the magazine over the piece, with one calling it a “hand-wringing apologia for Zionism.”

Other commentators blasted the magazine for the decision, with novelist and essayist Phil Klay writing in The Atlantic: The “retraction of the article is more than an act of cowardice and a betrayal of a writer whose work the magazine shepherded to publication. It’s a betrayal of the task of literature, which cannot end wars but can help us see why people wage them, oppose them, or become complicit in them.”

PEN America weighed in as well on the retraction, calling it a mistake.

“A writer’s published work should not be yanked from circulation because it sparks public outcry or sharp disagreement,” the free-expression nonprofit posted March 12 on X.  “Individuals are free to respond, rebut or criticize as they choose. But to erase the work of a writer who sought to grapple with the complexities of the war in Gaza in her own life is to set a dangerous precedent at odds with the freedom to read and the values of free expression.”