NEW YORK, NY.- PEN America’s annual gala, held under the giant blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, typically draws writers and deep-pocketed supporters to toast the group’s mission of defending free expression at home and abroad.

But as this year’s event approached, many in the literary community were wondering if the show would go on at all.

For months, PEN America has been roiled by internal and external criticism of its response to the war in the Gaza Strip. Last month, the group canceled its literary awards ceremony and then its annual World Voices Festival, after dozens of writers withdrew to protest what they said was a failure to adequately speak out about the dire threats to Palestinian writers and culture posed by Israel’s military campaign.

The gala, which was expected to raise roughly $2 million, went on as planned, though not exactly as usual. Outside, protesters from the group Writers Against the War on Gaza, wearing evening dress, passed out mock programs welcoming guests with assurances that “our efforts to silence dissent and normalize genocide would not be possible without your steadfast support, engagement and, most importantly, your dollars.”

Inside, more than 600 guests, including writers Malcolm Gladwell, Gary Shteyngart, Jay McInerney and Claire Messud, circulated during pre-dinner cocktails. One guest wore a T-shirt that said “Not in Our Name, Jews for a Ceasefire Now.” Others seemed bewildered by the intensity of the anger at PEN America itself.

Writer Darryl Pinckney said he had never thought of PEN America as being pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian or anything except pro-writer, as exemplified by displays highlighting the stories of imprisoned writers around the world.

“PEN has to be a wide tent and have different points of view,” he said. “That’s the whole point of intellectual life.”

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s military retaliation, PEN America, which describes itself as standing “at the intersection of literature and human rights,” has found itself in an unexpected position.

The group has issued multiple statements urging universities and other cultural organizations to respect the right to protest, preserve open dialogue and avoid canceling speakers and events. But at the same time, PEN America has been engulfed by debate over whether the group has been true to its mission, with some critics charging PEN America with a timid response when it comes to defending imperiled writers in Gaza, compared with the group’s full-throated response on Ukraine.

There have been open letters, social media salvos and a war of words within the group’s board, as disagreements over how to respond to criticism have spilled into public. There have also been calls for the group’s CEO, Suzanne Nossel, and its president, novelist Jennifer Finney Boylan, to resign.

In her speech, Boylan, who became president last fall, started out talking about “something light and humorous”: Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, “Knife,” his account of being stabbed onstage at a literary event in 2022 and the long recovery afterward.

She also acknowledged the criticism directed at PEN America, and wondered if “a comic transgender novelist” like herself was the best leader for today’s fraught moment.

“All I have, in the end, are the tools of love and forgiveness,” she said. “But is that enough to heal the world?”

The evening offered some celebrity glitz up front, with a warm-up monologue by Seth Meyers, an award given to Paul Simon (who performed a solo version of “American Tune” on acoustic guitar) and an appearance by Tyler Perry. He presented an award to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, two Georgia election workers who received death threats after Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign had falsely accused them of committing election fraud.

But the heart of the evening highlighted PEN America’s far-flung mission, from defending persecuted writers in authoritarian countries to fighting book bans, restrictions on teaching, and other threats closer to home.

There was an award for Almar Latour, the CEO of Dow Jones and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, in recognition of the paper’s advocacy for Evan Gershkovich, the Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for 414 days.

The Freedom to Write Award, given annually to an imprisoned writer, was presented in absentia to Pham Doan Trang, a publisher, journalist and pro-democracy activist jailed in Vietnam.

Nossel, who has led PEN America since 2013, took the stage to loud applause. She began by recalling last year’s gala, which honored jailed Iranian writer Narges Mohammadi, who went on to win the Nobel Prize. (Although she remains imprisoned, 46 of the 53 writers honored by PEN America since 1987 have been released, according to the group.)

“Tonight, the shared purpose that bound us so tightly behind Narges has frayed,” Nossel said. “Our assembly is disassembling. People of good intention and staunch conviction are wracked by a wrenching conflict. We are haunted by destruction, death and suffering that has caused some to question PEN America’s words, deeds and purpose.”

She reiterated the organization’s mission to defend free speech for all, which has meant defending “drag shows, Moms for Liberty, right-wing provocateurs and a revolutionary Communist Party bookstore.”

And then Nossel turned to the topic on many minds. She nodded at the charge that PEN America has been slow to help writers in Gaza.

“Our work to call out assaults on Palestinian writers has been extensive and evolving,” she said. “When writers are in danger, we always press ourselves to do more.”

And she cautioned against the appeal of seeing just one side of any story. “My personal touchstone, very simply, is that when it comes to Israel and Palestine, you cannot care about one people without caring about the other,” she said.

In one of the last speeches, novelist Dinaw Mengestu, a board member and PEN America vice president, introduced the award for Pham, the Vietnamese writer. Last week, after another board member, George Packer, argued in The Atlantic that PEN America was the victim of “authoritarian” bullies bent on demanding total loyalty to their cause, Mengestu blasted back on social media, saying that critics needed to be listened to, not belittled.

In his speech, Mengestu called out to Pham and others far beyond the conviviality in the room.

“We know that writers work all too often alone, in silence and solitude, without the power or protection of the very institutions they hope to change,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.