The National Book Foundation is facing criticism from several Jewish groups for its decision to move forward in presenting a lifetime achievement award to Paul Coates, the founder of Black Classic Press, at its annual reception later this week — even after he was recently found to have republished antisemitic and homophobic texts.

Coates, the father of the journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, is set to receive the prestigious literary award at the 75th National Book Awards ceremony in New York City on Wednesday, where he will be honored for his longtime dedication to “celebrating the life of Black writers and bolstering their literary legacies” through his publishing company, founded in 1978.

But Coates, 78, has come under scrutiny in recent months for including in his catalog an antisemitic screed called The Jewish Onslaught, published in 1993 by Tony Martin, a former professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College, who sought to uphold a widely discredited conspiracy theory alleging Jewish domination of the Atlantic slave trade.

The book, which Black Classic Press had praised in a laudatory blurb, was recently removed without explanation from the company’s website following a Jewish Insider report, published in late September, that first highlighted its inclusion in the publisher’s online catalog.

In addition to Martin’s book, which was widely criticized as antisemitic at the time of its release, Coates has reissued several other works by authors who have espoused antisemitism and homophobia, the online journal Arc found in a review of the Black Classic Press catalog published last month.

The National Book Foundation, which in recent weeks has privately weighed its decision to honor Coates, has said that it will move ahead with the ceremony this week as planned, despite pushback from leading Jewish groups raising questions over the award.

In a statement shared with JI on Friday, the foundation said it “condemns antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism and hatred in all its forms,” adding it “also supports freedom of expression and the right of any publisher to make its own determination on what it chooses to publish.”

“Anyone examining the work of any publisher, over the course of almost five decades, will find individual works or opinions with which they disagree or find offensive,” the organization said. “The National Book Foundation is honoring W. Paul Coates, not for the publication of any particular titles or authors, but for his tireless efforts of scholarship, to ensure that Black voices and stories, that might otherwise have been lost, are instead preserved as an irreplaceable part of American literary history.”

But Jewish advocacy groups, including some that Martin singled out in his book nearly three decades ago, voiced frustration with the decision, especially amid heightened concerns over increasing incidents of antisemitism in the literary and publishing worlds in recent months.

The Anti-Defamation League, which denounced Martin’s tract at the time of its publication, took issue with the award in a statement to JI. “The revelation that Black Classic Press published and promoted a deeply antisemitic title, and the National Book Foundation has chosen to overlook this fact, is emblematic of a wider problem in the industry, where publishing companies continue to carry antisemitic books such as The Jewish Onslaught and literary organizations shun Jewish writers,” an ADL spokesperson said on Monday.

“Although this particular title from the Black Classic Press website was removed, it’s disturbing that the site continues to carry other books that contain antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ themes,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the World Jewish Congress, which Martin attacked in his book along with the ADL, called on the National Book Foundation to rescind its award to Coates. “At a time of surging global antisemitism, the World Jewish Congress finds it particularly disturbing that the National Book Foundation would fête publisher Paul Coates with a lifetime achievement award this week,” the group said in a statement to JI. “Coates, who recently republished The Jewish Onslaught, a pernicious essay that invokes antisemitic conspiracy theories and attacks Jewish organizations, deserves no such honor.”

“If the National Book Foundation truly condemns antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism and hatred in all its forms, as its executive director has insisted,” the WJC argued on Monday, “it would immediately halt the upcoming event.”

Naomi Firestone-Teeter, the CEO of the Jewish Book Council, which launched an initiative last February to help report antisemitic incidents in the book industry, said the award “speaks to the double standard of how antisemitism, Jews and Israelis have been treated in the literary and publishing world.”

“Even naming the existence of antisemitism in this field has been met with anger and denial by the secular literary community — a frightening reaction that I can’t imagine we’d see with any other group that wanted to acknowledge discrimination or bias that they’ve experienced,” Firestone-Teeter told JI. “To see authors and books uplifted that lean on antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories and at the same time seeing Jewish and Israeli authors and books discriminated against shows how deeply entrenched — and normalized — these views have become.”

The National Book Foundation did not respond to a request for comment from JI regarding the criticism from Jewish groups. 

Black Classic Press, which has avoided publicly addressing the controversy surrounding its catalog, did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Monday.

While Coates has won plaudits for his longtime commitment to discovering contemporary writers as well as reissuing works by obscure and celebrated authors, his decision to republish Martin’s viciously antisemitic book has threatened to overshadow such achievements as he prepares to accept the award on Wednesday.

Mary Lefkowitz, a professor emerita of classical studies at Wellesley College who frequently sparred with Martin — who died in 2013 — told JI it was “a shame” Coates had brought renewed attention to The Jewish Onslaught, which had also targeted her with antisemitic attacks.
“I believe in freedom of speech but I wish that Mr. Coates had not chosen to promote Tony Martin’s The Jewish Onslaught, a book which uses virulent antisemitism in order to defend a theory that has repeatedly been shown to be demonstrably untrue,” Lefkowitz said.