When Gabrielle Zevin was a featured author in Hadassah Magazine’s One Book, One Hadassah national book initiative, back in February 2023, she spoke extensively about her Jewish background and disputed the suggestion that any references to Israel in her work conveyed any particular viewpoint. 

Still, it is at least in part because of that appearance that she has been targeted as a “Zionist” author in multiple ways amid the blacklisting and review bombing of Jewish authors in the literary world. 

She had been invited by the magazine to discuss her award-winning bestselling novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which was first published in 2022. The novel centers on the relationship between Sadie Green, a Jewish woman from Los Angeles, and Sam Masur, her Jewish Korean childhood friend, as they develop a successful video game company. The novel explores an enduring friendship, interspersed with ideas around contemporary identities and disabilities.  

The New York Times, which included Zevin’s novel in its recently released The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, called the book “a dazzling disquisition on art, ambition and the endurance of platonic love.” 

In their 2023 virtual discussion, Zevin told Lisa Hostein, executive editor of Hadassah Magazine, that this is the first of her novels in which she explores her Jewish and Korean identities.  

Hadassah—whose full name is Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America—is mentioned twice in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. The novel, which was released in paperback in June and has a movie adaptation in the works, includes a reference to a prize Sadie won from a local Hadassah group for community service at the time of her bat mitzvah.  

When she showed Sam years later the heart-shaped crystal paperweight she had received, he said: “This is a quality prize. Those Hadassah ladies don’t mess around.”  

Zevin, whose mother is Korean and whose father is an Ashkenazi Jew, began getting pushback on social media soon after the book was published for including an Israeli character, well before the exponential rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment after the Hamas attack of October 7 and Israel’s response. In the story, Dov is an Israeli professor, investor in Sadie’s company and her lover.  

During the One Book, One Hadassah discussion, the author lamented that there are readers who think that you should not put anything to do with Israel or make anybody Israeli in books. 

And she cautioned against interpreting her views on Israel based on the inclusion of an Israeli character.  

Zevin’s appearance at the magazine event was the reason cited in two of the at least three instances that Zevin has been targeted as a Zionist, though she has not publicly said if she identifies as one or not. 

 The latest incident occurred this month when Chicago bookstore CityLit withdrew her popular Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow from potential inclusion in one of its book clubs. When notifying book club members of the removal of Zevin’s book, a CityLit assistant manager sent this email: “It was brought to my attention that the author Gabrielle Zevin is a Zionist, and I am not comfortable having us reading something by her, especially knowing people would buy it from the store and she would receive monetary support from us,” the assistant manager, Charlie Schumann, reportedly wrote in the leaked email.  

After widespread criticism, the bookstore posted a statement on Instagram, slightly walking back the decision. They do not ban Jewish authors, that statement says, though it does not mention Israel or Zionism. The store is selling, and in recent weeks has reportedly sold out of, Zevin’s novel. 

The first time Zevin was blacklisted was soon after October 7, 2023, by Fairyloot. a fantasy book subscription service. After getting backlash for the move, Fairyloot put out a statement supporting Zevin’s book and announcing that it would be selling an exclusive special edition for YA readers, with extra features like Zevin’s digital signature.  

Then, in May, Zevin, along with some 200 other authors, was included on a Google spreadsheet titled “is your fav author a Zionist?” that was created by a woman who identified herself as Amina Hossain, who posted it on X.  

Hossain sought to evaluate whether authors are sufficiently pro-Palestinian and urged a boycott of those who are not. The list was eventually removed by Google for violating its terms of service. But not before it had been viewed over 1 million times and shared some 8,000 times.  

Zevin wasn’t the only One Book, One Hadassah author blacklisted on the Google doc. Also included were Lisa Barr, Elyssa Friedland and Talia Carner. Carner, whose book The Boy with the Star Tattoo is July’s One Book, One Hadassah pick, will be speaking with Hostein on July 29 at 7 PM ET. “I’m in good company,” Carner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in response to the list.  

Neither Zevin nor her publisher, Knopf, responded to requests for comment.  

This all comes at a time when some Jewish and/or pro-Israel authors are being shadow banned by agents and publishers and review-bombed by readers and reviewers online. Israeli authors have also reported feeling they are being ignored by mainstream outlets that ordinarily review their works. Yet other Jewish authors, especially highly prominent ones, have reported no backlash and no condemnation.   

In response to the CityLit incident, Hadassah Magazine’s Hostein said in a statement issued July 22: “I don’t know whether Gabrielle Zevin considers herself a Zionist or not,” but, it’s clear “that boycotting a Jewish author for appearing before the largest Jewish women’s organization in the country is antisemitism, pure and simple.” 

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