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Censorship: Shame on the Sunnyvale public library, California
The Sunnyvale public library in the Silicon Valley follows the latest trend to cancel Jewish writers: they censor my books.
A casual search using Google shows the trend of cancelling Jewish writers in the public sphere. As in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. Just a few examples:
Brett Gelman, a native of Highland Park, Chicago, got his appearances in two bookstores cancelled. One bookstore is in Winnetka, Chicago, the other in San Francisco. The reason given: “concerns about customer and employee safety”. He was going to talk about his recent book: “The Terrifying Realms of the Possible: Nearly True Stories”.
Another Chicago bookstore, City Lit Books, removed a novel by Gabrielle Zevin, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”, from its book club poll due to “concerns about the author’s Zionist view”.
A third Jewish author, Adam Gitwitz, got his appearance at an elementary school in Manhattan, New York, cancelled: He was going to talk about his latest book: “Max in the House of Spies”, about the Kindertransport, the effort to get Jewish children out of Nazi Germany in 1938. He was told by a teacher that “given the subject matter of Adam’s book, the recent events in the world and a few things going on my school, my principal thinks it is best to cancel”.
I was recently at the bookstore Books Inc, in Mountain View, in the center of the Silicon Valley, California. The bookstore prominently features books promoting the Palestinian perspective of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Examples: “The question of Palestine” by Edward Said, “The hundred years’ war on Palestine: A history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-1947” by Rashid Khalidi, and so on:
In its website, the bookstore says that it accepts books from authors for consignment. Hence, I went to the bookstore, I showed them a paperback copy of my recent book “The root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the path to peace” by Jaime Kardontchik (well, my name is not an Arab sounding name for sure). The store manager immediately replied that his store does not accept books for consignment.
The Sunnyvale Library, my hometown, accepts in its website monthly suggestions from its members, who propose new books for the library to purchase for circulation between its readers. Browsing through the lately acquired books by the library, I saw that they usually present the Palestinian perspective of the conflict. Hence, a month ago, on June 7, I proposed to add to the library my book “The root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the path to peace”, presenting the Jewish perspective of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In less than 48 hours, my suggestion was turned down: Not Approved.
When I inquired about the reasons, the Supervising Librarian began giving all kinds of reasons: First, the library had limited budget for purchasing books. I offered then a free complementary paperback copy of the book. The next adduced problem was: limited physical space in the library: I offered then a free-download of my book in digital format (eBook, pdf format): this version of my book does not occupy physical space and is for free. No, they are not prepared to accept free downloads for their readers in pdf format.
Further inquiry, and the librarian’s answer was that they also look for “published evaluations or reviews, receipt or nomination for awards.”
Using a quick search in the library’s website under the keyword “Arab-Israeli conflict”, the first book that appears on their list is the book by Lenny Flank, titled “A documentary history of the struggle for peace in Palestine”. It consists of a brief introduction, biased towards the Palestinian narrative, followed by a score of documents readily available by a simple search on the internet. What kind of reviews or nominations for awards did this book receive in order to get the stamp of approval of the Sunnyvale library? I looked at Amazon and at Alibris: Zero. Nada. Zilch. Nevertheless, the Sunnyvale library purchased it and added it to the collection of books offered to its readers.
Anyway, I replied to the librarian that my book had been downloaded from the ResearchGate website by hundreds of professors and graduate students from the US and European universities, which indicated – at least – the degree of interest in my book. And I included a list of ten professors, by name and affiliation, that had lately downloaded the book, including one from Germany who had issued an explicit recommendation of the book in the ResearchGate website.
It did not help.
My next step was then to print the following leaflet:
In the leaflet I wrote: “The library does not want to circulate these books between its readers, even after I proposed to the library to have them available for free reading and download. Talk to the Library and ask to include these books into the digital (or paperback) book collection available to its readers.”
I stood outside the library, more than 30 feet away from the entrance to the library, as required by regulations, and I handed the leaflet to incomers. I did this in multiple days and at different times of the day. In one ocassion, a female employee of the library, exited the library building and came up to me: She was furious, she said that she was going to call the police, and when I handed to her my leaflet she smashed it between her fingers. In another occasion, another employee of the library, this time a male employee, most probably a librarian, exited the building, and came to me. We talked a bit. It was really a friendly conversation, he said that I was indeed following the rules, and he ended up apologyzing to me before he returned to the library building. He too received the leaflet. And he did not smash it.
On July 1st, I issued a new request to the library to include my book (paperback) for circulation between its readers, offering a free complementary copy to the library:
As I said before, my first request, on June 7th was rejected (“Not Approved”) in less than 48 hours. This time, my second request, issued on July 1st, appears already three weeks “Under Review” and we are now on July 24th.
***
You can download my book for free at:
(August 2024 edition)
