Brooklyn Bookstore Fires Employee Who Canceled Jewish Author's Event

BROOKLYN, NY —Powerhouse Arena was all set to host an event on Tuesday night featuring Joshua Leifer and Rabbi Andy Bachman discussing Leifer's new book, "Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life."

Then, according to the bookstore, a store manager canceled the event at the last minute, saying she didn't want "a Zionist on our stage," about Bachman, who supports Israel's right to exist.

The New York Post identifies the former employee as Hannah Hayes. Bachman was the event's moderator.

The bookstore's owner, Daniel Powers, has posted a statement condemning the employee's actions, stating that the manager's behavior was "unneeded, unwanted, and unauthorized."

Powers also said Hayes planned to leave the bookstore the following week but was fired immediately after discovering what had happened.

"The gross irony of the situation, with one disgruntled employee allowing her biases to run roughshod over Powerhouse's clear enthusiasm to host these speakers and provide them with a public forum, is surmounted only by the dark specter of antisemitic bigotry that her words conjured," the statement reads.

"She forced Leifer and Rabbi Bachman's planned event to discuss the complex evolution of American Jewish identity in the 21st century to instead become a case study of the shocking re-emergence of Anti-Semitic hostility that continues to rear its head in spaces and communities where all of us would least expect it to," Powers wrote.

Read the full statement here.