Writers cut references to Anne Frank, Israel from novels after online complaints

JTA — Bestselling authors Elin Hilderbrand and Casey McQuiston removed references to Anne Frank and Israel from their novels this week following an outcry on social media from small subsets of readers.

The moves have ignited a storm of controversy in the literary world.

The campaigns against the books have been successful despite appearing to be relatively small in size, and originate from wildly different perspectives on Jews and Israel. One takes the authors to task for a joke perceived as antisemitic, while the other objects to the mere mention of Israel.

In the former case, the first edition of Hilderbrand’s new novel, “Golden Girl,” contains a line of dialogue in which two teenage girls in Nantucket discuss a plan for one of them to hide in her friend’s attic for the summer. One of the girls then jokes that she would be “like Anne Frank.”

Some readers on Instagram said the joke was antisemitic and demanded an apology from Hilderbrand. The author issued one and announced she would be removing the passage from future printings of the book.

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Anne Frank (Public Domain)

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