People Love Dead Jews

Reports from a Haunted Present

By: Dara Horn

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

A startling and profound exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living.

Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture - and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly anti-Semitic attacks - Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: She was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In these essays, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present.

Horn draws upon her travels, her research, and also her own family life - trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious 10-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school, the profound perspective offered by traditional religious practice and study - to assert the vitality, complexity, and depth of Jewish life against an anti-Semitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget", is on the rise. As Horn explores the (not so) shocking attacks on the American Jewish community in recent years, she reveals the subtler dehumanization built into the public piety that surrounds the Jewish past - making the radical argument that the benign reverence we give to past horrors is itself a profound affront to human dignity.

©2021 Dara Horn (P)2021 Recorded Books

Powerful and smart

Absolutely scalding. Stated in the simplest terms, Horn argues that people love Jews who are dead -- killed by pogroms, in the camps, in attacks on American streets -- but live Jews not so much. She demonstrates her point by looking critically at how dead Jews are memorialized, how the media covers antisemitic acts in ways different from other hate crimes, how scholars have successfully whitewashed the vicious antisemitism of "The Merchant of Venice" (Horn has a PhD in English so she is definitely qualified to speak), myths about name-changing on Ellis Island, and a good deal more. Her travels in laying all this out take us from New Jersey to Amsterdam, Syria to China, and numerous places in between.

There's no way I can summarize the book without making it sound dry or polemical. It's not. Horn's voice is engaging and welcoming (so too is the astonishingly good job of reader Xe Sands -- wow!), and reading the book is like spending several evenings -- spread out over time, of course -- with a smart friend who knows a lot about a lot of things, is gifted in her ability to (warmly) share what she knows, has a good sense of humor, is brutally honest, and who is really angry.

A remarkable book. And again, I can't say enough to praise how good Xe Sands is in her narration. Listening to the book might have prevented me from taking notes and underlining passages, but her reading more than compensates.

Wonderful-Thoughtful

Really make you think and rethink the conventional interpretation of Jewish history and how the world still views Jews in many ways the same as it has throughout time.

Extremely powerful book!

This book will change your perspective on antisemitism and what it is to live as Jew.

Interesting personal essays

The anecdotes were interesting and worth knowing. I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions, and I don't find one strong opinion running throughout that she seems to be advocating, but rather it is a collection of her musings that awaken thoughts on the topic of anti-Semitism and Jewish life in America.

Awesome!!

In an effort to remain pithy, this is a must read. You will be glad you did!

Recommended for All

This was such an incredible book, enlightening and inspiring, I learned so much and as dark as the book and the contents were I feel uplifted moving forward.
I deeply recommend this, especially for non-Jews, to understand a little more clearly the antisemitism around the world today, and the history that has influenced our mindsets now .

Well written and informative

Dana Horn is very well educated. She writes well and posits interesting topics that she unpacks completely.

A needed book.

A needed book. Dara Horn makes no mistake when she says that it seems the only jew people care about is a dead jew. To erase histories is nothing new given the ongoing misinformation campaign against the only Jewish State. Or the way that voices seem to come out only after a tragedy.

Magnificent

Thought provoking, tragic, funny and beautiful written. I recommend this for anyone struggling with faith.

Should be required reading

An enlightening book for Jews but I think even more important for non-Jews to read/listen to and learn from. Antisemitism is the oldest form of hatred and it’s ever present today. It looks different than other forms of discrimination and can be more insidious. This book really makes you see through the bullshit. It also teaches you a lot about Jewish history beyond the Holocaust that you probably did not know about. I’m not nearly a good a writer as Dara so this review will fall short of doing it justice but please or listen to this book!