Liberal Brooklyn Rabbi Andy Bachman has faced “a couple of bruising experiences” in progressive spaces since Oct. 7, but even he was shocked on Tuesday night when an independent bookstore in the borough abruptly canceled a conversation he was slated to have with author Joshua Leifer. The stated reason for the cancellation: Employees of the bookstore, PowerHouse Arena, told Leifer they were “unwilling to host the conversation with Andy because they would not permit a Zionist on the premises.”

“I was expecting to be heckled but this was utterly shocking,” Bachman, the former leader of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, told Jewish Insider hours after he was snubbed by the employees of PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO. 

Bachman said about 30 attendees, all of whom had pre-bought copies of Leifer’s new book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, had arrived at the event ahead of him. (Attendees were refunded for the book when the event was canceled.)  “The manager said, ‘I can’t get into it with you’ and told me to call Josh. Josh said the reason they had canceled was because they did some research during the day and discovered that I was a ‘Zionist,’” Bachman told JI, noting that over the years he officiated several Jewish weddings at the venue, which doubles as an event space. 

“I didn’t want to upset Josh’s event so I stepped back and let him handle it,” Bachman said. “But it’s purely insane.”

“I wrote this book to explore debates within American Jewish life, which of course includes many people who identify as Zionists,” Leifer, a Jewish Currents contributing editor and a member of the Dissent editorial board, wrote on X. “My biggest worry was about synagogues not wanting to host me. I didn’t think it would be bookstores in Brooklyn that would be closing their doors.” 

Neither Leifer, who has been affiliated with the far-left group IfNotNow, nor the management of PowerHouse Arena, which has three locations in Brooklyn and calls itself an “indie bookstore,” responded to multiple requests for comment from JI. 

Although Bachman was “shocked” by Tuesday’s incident, it was not the first time he has faced hostility in a progressive crowd for supporting the existence of Israel since Oct. 7. 

In December, Bachman wrote on Substack that he was “heckled, interrupted and yelled at by students and faculty, in a blinding rage of their own certainty” at an event hosted by Hunter College where he was invited to discuss the controversial film “Israelism.” 

At the time, Bachman wrote that he was “lambasted for being a rabbi who dared to dissent from the only line of reasoning that the film and its protagonists had to offer: Israeli and Zionist American Jews are solely responsible for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

PowerHouse owner Daniel Power said the employee who canceled the event will be terminated.