British publishers have been refusing to publish books by authors who are Jewish, according to a report by The Telegraph this week.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there has been a surge in antisemitic incidents and discrimination against Jews around the world.
British founder of EnvelopeBooks, Stephen Games, an independent publisher, noted how, following the start of the war, there has been “a climate of growing hostility against Jews” within the publishing industry.
“A very well-known literary agent of great repute and associated with books that one would immediately recognize said that he is having difficulty with his Jewish authors or writings on Jewish subjects because he just finds that much of literary London is now a no-go zone for Jews,” Games stated.
Antisemitisim on the rise in Britian
As Jews living in Britain are faced with encompassing antisemitism, many have considered leaving the UK.
A recent study collected by the Campaign Against Antisemitism found that nearly half of British Jews have considered leaving the UK due to the increase in antisemitic incidents since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
Jewish author Gillian Freedman, however, who has a book titled Jews Milk Goats, remained determined to continue living in her UK village.
“I’m very open about being a Jew in my little village, and I’m very well accepted and integrated and have had a lot of support – much more support than my Jewish friends in London have had,” she said.
Nevertheless, she too claimed that she had faced discrimination, describing one incident where an editor attempted to remove the mention of her book, claiming that “we need to give a wide berth to anything which references Jewish people and Judaism. It just isn’t worth the hassle that will ensue.”
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