The College Fix

‘We should have been more thoughtful in how we approached this panel,’ group states

The New York State Writers Institute recently issued a statement apologizing for canceling a “Girls, Coming of Age” panel because some participants expressed concerns with “being on a panel with a Zionist.”

At issue was moderator Elisa Albert, who is Jewish and has voiced concerns for Israel in the wake of last year’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. The panel, set for an annual book festival co-sponsored and held at the University of Albany, was canceled by the group Sept. 19.

“Basically, not to sugar coat this, [two fellow authors] don’t want to be on a panel with a ‘Zionist,’” Mark Koplik, assistant director of the institute, wrote in an email to Albert, The Free Press reported. A few days after that report, the institute apologized.

“This was a terrible situation, and we should have been more thoughtful in how we approached this panel and the concerns that were raised by all the authors. The New York State Writers Institute is committed to programming that celebrates diverse voices and facilitates conversations that create opportunities for understanding and mutual respect,” the Sept. 26 statement read.

“In this instance, we did not live up to that ideal. We apologize to the participants of the panel for not treating this programming with the careful consideration it needed and for any consequences they faced as a result.”

Albert, in an email to The College Fix, said she had been surprised by the cancelation.

“I did not and do not know these authors, there was no conflict between us, because there was no dialogue,” Albert wrote.

The two panelists at the center of the controversy are Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko.

In a statement to The Fix, Ko wrote: “I was concerned about statements that this individual had made, including calling those who have spoken out against the ongoing violence of Israel’s war on Gaza ‘terror apologists.’”

However, Ko said she “never refused to participate on the panel,” and “the accusation that I withdrew because the moderator is Jewish, or that I am unwilling to appear onstage with someone who is Jewish, is hurtful and completely false.”

“The Festival informed me that I would no longer be attending,” Ko said. “I discovered the organizers had emailed the moderator separately to tell her that I had refused to appear on the panel with her — misinformation that has gone on to foster an increasingly hostile response toward myself and others, including defamation and death threats.”

Contact information for Gawad could not be found despite a thorough search. The writers institute has yet to respond to The College Fix’s request for comment.

Albert said she is “a zionist who is very much for palestinian solidarity and safety and a Middle East forever free of terror proxies and theocratic fascism.”

“Those authors weren’t trying to engage with my Jewish identity or learn more about why it’s important to me that jews have a right to live in peace and safety; they were just trying (ineptly) to smear and malign me,” she told The Fix.

“The NYSWI basically didn’t want to confront this issue on my behalf, so they did the most cowardly thing possible and canceled the panel, in hopes that it, and I, would just go away, essentially. I told them this was a mistake, but they brushed me off,” Albert said.

MORE: Wake Forest U. invites pro-Hamas speaker, cancels after backlash

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