Monday is the anniversary of the beginning of Hamas and Hezbollah’s reign of terror in Israel. We’ve heard countless horrific stories of the events of Oct. 7, while the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports that, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) over the past year, 19,000 unguided rockets have been fired at the Jewish state. We’ve also been horrified and outraged by the vicious attacks and threats directed at Jews in our own country, including those on prestigious college campuses and in major cities.
Still, if you are not literary-minded and not Jewish, you may not be aware of what happened to the writer Elisa Albert when she tried to take the stage at the Albany Book Festival last month.
Although our politics clash (Albert’s an ardent feminist and passionate leftist), I’ve long admired the author. Primarily a fiction writer, she has published three novels and a volume of short stories. But like me, Albert is also an essayist. Her work is honest, funny, and irreverent. She is a wife, mother, ex-New Yorker, Albany resident, and doula. Elisa Albert is also a Jew.
As an accomplished local literary figure, the author was scheduled to moderate a panel on Sept. 21 at the Albany Book Festival, an event she has supported every year since its inception in 2017. The session entitled, “Girls, Coming of Age,” featured three writers in addition to Albert.
Two days before the event, Albert received an email from one of the organizers letting her know
