We've been in touch with the co-owner of Booksmith in San Francisco, as their collection proved to be, in our opinion, quite biased.
We're copying our correspondence with Camden without editing, and with his permission.
Our aim with this petition, and the spreadsheet we launched, is to help you make informed decisions, based on where you, personally, draw the line. This is why the spreadsheet has a column dedicated to what it is that we found problematic about any given store.
While we take issue with the fact that aside from the collection, Camden also signed this letter, characterizing what's going on in Gaza as "genocidal", we'd like to acknowledge that he expressed wishes to see a permanent ceasefire and the return of the hostages.
But as we keep saying - we'd like to see actions, not just words.
More in the correspondence itself:
Fighting Antisemitism:
Good morning,
This petition we launched addresses you.
We believe the petition makes it clear that we're not in the business of silencing any voices, on the contrary, we just want to be included as well.
We got a report that your store shows bias (you're not alone) and upon checking on your site we couldn't find in stock some very basic books (which are mentioned in the petition) about the Jewish and Israeli experience.
You'll see in many of the comments that we are big lovers and supporters of independent bookstores, and it's been hard to feel intentionally excluded.
Most of us also see ourselves as progressives. We would love to see a more balanced representation about a complicated region in conflict.
We're hoping this will start a dialogue and launch an effort to be more inclusive.
If you have any comment on the matter, we will gladly post it. If you intend on taking steps towards a more inclusive representation, we will gladly remove you from the petition.
Naturally, you are entitled to your opinion and your stand on issues, and our community is entitled to choose what to support. If that happens to align, then wonderful.
Thank you very much.
PS - this petition was launched before the recent events at Powerhouse, but what happened over there proved a point - there's a systematic issue to handle.
Camden Avery:
thanks for the thoughtful note and for reaching out! we always love feedback from our community stakeholders about the books we stock, and we appreciate the ongoing conversation about how best to present a collection that's intentionally diverse—something we take a lot of pride in doing well. a couple of the titles the petition lists aren't a great fit for us specifically, and some are (most are books we've actually stocked and sold) so thank you for the nod and the opportunity to round out our stock: i'll pick some up and they'll happily join the many many other books we carry and feature by and about Jewish and Israeli writers in history, politics, memoir, fiction, poetry, the culinary arts, juvenile fiction, art, and genre fiction.
in the interest of transparency i should also add that we're very vocally pro-human / anti-war generally (no matter the human, no matter the war), so i know the perceptual social politics are thorny but to the extent that some people have so far encountered us as biased because we support a permanent/immediate global ceasefire and the return of hostages, we will continue to be biased in that regard! it sounds like your organizing effort is genuinely oriented around open dialog and broader literary representation in book inventory, both of which we're big champions for, but i mention this because i know your ratings are user-reported and everyone's experience of belonging and community on this issue is deeply complicated and personal.
thank you again for the opportunity to discuss and please of course let me know if you have any questions,
camden
(PS, you obviously found us OK but for your listing/reporting purposes we are in San Francisco rather than Oakland!)
Fighting Antisemitism:
Good morning Camden and thank you for putting the time to write this response.
I have a few questions, if you don't mind, as well as some food for thought from our perspective. I'm saying "our" because I can assure you that this has been debated (not now, but for months) with many many people.
-First of all, we're quite curious to hear which books you deem "aren't a great fit for us specifically".
-Secondly, so how does Booksmith actually work? You seem to have multiple branches all over the place. Is yours the HQ?
-Since you're open-minded about being diverse and inclusive, it seems like this book, which comes out in Nov. could be good. I haven't read it, none of us are affiliated with the store other than getting them recommended through our anonymous submission form, but looking at this list of authors, I'm guessing this book, too, will have diverse outlooks on the situation.
https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/our-books/on-being-jewish-now
And I think that if someone feels iffy about stocking a book that touches on how Jews feel after Oct. 7th, it's worth asking why.
As for some perspective.
Look, yes, this conversation is transparent and that's a good and healthy part of dialogue. At the end of the day, you've signed a petition that used the word "genocide." We vehemently disagree with this characterization of what's going on in Gaza and find it offensive, even while we agree that there's a huge humanitarian crisis. However, that alone wouldn't have reflected on the store, if the store itself reflected its commitment to be a safe space.
You say you're pro-human, so are we, we'd just like to remind that zionists are humans too. And while this word was hijacked from us to mean something ugly, it's not what it actually means and we can't see why others decide for us what our word means. We, as Zionists on the left, believe Israel has the right to exist and Jews have the right for self-determination in their ancestral homeland. A land that we believe can be shared. Denying Jewish indigeneity to the region is very problematic and offensive. Again, that doesn't mean others aren't indigenous to the region, too.
You say you support a ceasefire and the return of the hostages - great, so are we. But I guarantee that when a zionist Jew walks into your store, seeing your name on a petition that proclaims genocide, and sees your in-store collection, they would never, in a million years, guess that you support the return of the hostage. It is not evident.
And while I believe you when you say that, I'm also saying - there's no reason for you to understand how it makes us feel, there's no reason for you to know that we'll never assume you support the return of the hostages, and so here we are to tell you, and give you the chance to do something about it.
We do not need instagram posts of support, we do not need hostages signs hanging in the store, but, and here's comes the final bit of perspective -
When I search you inventory using the keyword "Palestine", here's what I find:
https://www.booksmith.com/search/site/palestine
And here's what comes up when I look for Israel:
https://www.booksmith.com/search/site/israel
The one book on that main page that we'd consider fair to our experiences, isn't in stock. While most of the pro-Palestinian books, are.
Do we agree with everything the authors we suggested say? We do not. But that doesn't mean their voices, the closest to our own at the moment, don't deserve to be heard and displayed.
And frankly, the fact that both Jews Don't Count, and People Love Dead Jews aren't constantly in stock when there's such a growth in antisemitism, is very telling. To us at least. David Baddiel wasn't even a zionist. In his book he talks about zero emotional connection to Israel. He had a bit of an about face after Oct. 7th. But you won't see it in his book.
We agree that this is an individual thing, and since we wanted to be fair, for every store we add to the spreadsheet, we write what it is that we perceive as red flags. That way, people can make an educated decision based on where they, personally, draw the line, though I will say that bias in-store stock has been a reoccurring worry for many.
Thank you for conversing with us.
Camden Avery:
absolutely! thanks likewise for developing the conversation, it's really important to me and, i think, generally.
couple of answers to your questions, here:
- the books that aren't a great fit for us specifically are Hen Mezzig's book, which isn't available in our distribution channel of publishers or the wholesaler Ingram, which we use to source harder-to-acquire titles (i.e. we aren't able to source it), and Mosab Hassan Yousef's book, which specifically has a proven underperforming track record for us, even as a mainstream national bestseller—we actually have stocked it repeatedly since publication and have had to return it repeatedly because it had been so long without selling. the others we've stocked successfully and, like i said, happy to keep in the active collection.
- our Booksmith is just us! we're a one-location, independently owned shop. Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA is a totally separate entity with a totally separate history—i'm not sure where else you see us, but that's who we're most commonly mistaken for.
- totally agree, the Zibby Owens book looks like it might have something unique to offer in the way of a very-updated addition to the conversation given how the last year's played out.
big picture, i really appreciate the perspective and context, thank you for it. i think to me, one of the beauties of independent bookshops and the marketplace of ideas is that this is exactly where these kinds of different points of view can converge and, for example, you and i can talk and come away enlarged. it's been one of my great consistent joys in working in this community over the last decade and a half to have an ongoing, open-ended dialog with the people who shop here and come in every day and to help build an inventory that meets and serves them and to continue evolving.
anyway! thank you again and please make sure to say hi next time you visit,
camden