A year after October 7, 2023, Jerusalem-based literary agent Deborah Harris penned an op-ed in The New York Times with the headline “Stop the Boycott of Israeli Culture.” In it, she argued against the call by some prominent authors for a boycott of Israeli writers. “It cannot be that the solution to the conflict is to read less, not more,” she wrote, noting that the gates against Israeli authors were closing “well before” the start of the Israel-Hamas war. 

Harris, 69, is director of The Deborah Harris Agency, which, for the last 45 years, has represented the translation and dramatic rights of 140 Israeli and Jewish writers in more than 50 countries and also acts as a co-agent in Israel for more than 230 international publishers and literary agencies.

In a candid interview, she talks about the state of the Israeli publishing industry and why it’s more important than ever for Jews to publish—and buy—Israeli and Jewish-authored books. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The situation has been particularly bad for the Israeli publishing industry since October 7. Have you seen any recent shifts, for better or worse?

I would have thought a year and a half later, things would be better, and they’re not. I just got the current list of international authors who won’t be published in Israel, novelists like Isabel Allende and Fredrik Backman. Many of them couch it in terms like, “This is not the right time for her to be published in Israel.” Or sometimes it’s even, “She’ll never want to be published in Israel.”

What are the ramifications of the blacklists and calls to boycott Israeli and Jewish authors?

Last year, my agency must have gone down about 70 percent in sales. We’ve lost many clients and friends. I have not sold an Israeli literary project since October 7, other than someone whose voice has already been out there. There are Israeli writers who have succeeded—Dorit Rabinyan, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen—and have faithful readerships, created when there was support from publishers to do so.

A readership for Israeli writers has been created, but publishers are not buying enough new Israeli voices to meet that audience. There’s a fear that the next generation of Israeli writers are going to remain unknown around the world. I am also getting 10 new queries a week from American Jewish writers who can’t work with their agents anymore, or their agents won’t work with them.

It’s heartbreaking for American and European audiences, because I don’t think the readership is the problem. It’s the gatekeepers of the publishers that are not letting them in.

Are there any positive signs?

I don’t think it’s going to stay this way. I am not willing to accept that our books are not going to be published. I do think things are starting to change. There are individuals, editors and co-agents in various countries who are working with us and who are as relentless as we are. I think you need one book to break the Israeli book curse.

What can people do?

Jewish and Israeli writers are dependent on the international Jewish community to buy books and create events around those that have been published, to show the strength of our literary market. People should be buying recent books like Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory by Iddo Gefen, Mazeltov by Eli Zuzovsky and Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi. There has to be more of a Jewish support system. Buy a Jewish book every month!

Now is also the time for really smart people to come together and create a new publishing venture, a publishing house for Jewish and Israeli books. And that is my biggest hope for what will result from this situation. 

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Amy Klein is a freelance writer in New York City and the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind.