Brooklyn Bookstore Faces Backlash After Canceling Event to Avoid Hosting a 'Zionist'

A Brooklyn bookstore has sparked widespread outrage after canceling a Jewish author’s book launch just an hour before the event, citing the presence of a "Zionist" as the reason. Powerhouse Arena, located in the Dumbo neighborhood, was set to host a discussion on Tuesday for Tablets Shattered, a new book by Jewish journalist Joshua Leifer, when the sudden cancellation was announced.

Leifer, who has written for left-wing publications such as Jewish Currents and +972, took to social media to express his shock. “Less than an hour before the launch of my book Tablets Shattered, a conversation with Rabbi Andy Bachman, powerHouse Books [sic] in Brooklyn told me they are unwilling to host the conversation with Andy because they would not permit a Zionist on the premises,” Leifer wrote on X.

Bachman, the event's moderator, recounted the experience on Facebook, explaining that the bookstore canceled the event because of his pro-Israel views. “This rank and delusional antisemitism is outrageous,” Bachman wrote. “What we are now seeing is nothing short of Stalinist or Maoist thinking; a moral flattening of the political sphere; a social movement predicated on loyalty and purity tests that at this point can only tolerate, at best, one kind of Jew.”

Powerhouse Arena’s owner, Daniel Power, condemned the cancellation, describing it as the unauthorized action of a rogue employee. “It’s hideous, it’s uncalled for, and it was completely unauthorized,” Power told the New York Jewish Week. He pledged to terminate the employee and to reschedule the event, emphasizing that the bookstore has previously hosted Jewish and Zionist authors without issue.

According to Power, the employee in question is set to leave the bookstore next week for a new job. He suggested that the cancellation might have been an act of sabotage. Despite the incident, Power stressed that the bookstore strives to maintain a neutral environment, displaying both pro- and anti-Israel books and discouraging staff from promoting personal political views within the store.

The cancellation has drawn condemnation from Jewish community leaders and political officials in New York City. U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres both condemned the incident as antisemitic. Torres tweeted, “The far left is making ‘Zionists’ (i.e. most Jews) the exception to progressivism’s rule against discrimination.” Jill Jacobs, CEO of the progressive Jewish group T’ruah, called the cancellation “completely ridiculous,” adding that it is antisemitic to demand that Jews disavow Israel before being allowed into a space.

Mark Treyger, head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, also condemned the incident, describing the conduct as “hateful, shameful, and harmful.”

As outrage continues to mount, the Powerhouse incident highlights the growing tensions around Zionism and Jewish identity, particularly within progressive spaces. The bookstore’s attempt to rectify the situation by rescheduling the event may serve as a test of whether dialogue and understanding can prevail in an increasingly polarized environment.

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