Dara Horn | People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

[@WildwoodClaire1]

I did not so much read Dr. Horn's book as devour it. It was terrific, a veritable door into a vast new world of ideas for me to explore.

[@danielswindell125]

I think that Dara Horn is trying to express and capture an idea that is so subconscious in the differences between the Jewish and Christian world that it is incredibly difficult to articulate, and so she is searching for the language to find it. But, it's extremely impressive that she was able to identify these ideas.

[@Historian212]

It’s a terrific book. One of the best I’ve read in a long time.

[@adamk5890]

@@Historian212 For someone who read the book you don't seem to be aware of any of the contests of it from your comment. I hope she is not telling people to just positive reviews for people that didn't even read it.

[@jackarnon5483]

Here are the names of some Jewish writers. Chaim Nachman Bialik, Israel Singer ( IB Singer’s brother) I L Perez, Mendele Mocher Sfoirim, my favorite Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever, etc. then there are some Yiddish writers who lived in America, Amoy she Leib Halpern, and Jacob Gladstein as well as Scholem Asch, etc. And I didn’t even go to Haavaad.

[@Historian212]

Many people don’t know about Isaac Bashevis Singer, so I’m mentioning him specifically. I took a course in Yiddish Lit in Translation in college (long ago), and read “The Family Moskat.” A perfect example of what she talked about. Stunning. And no happy ending. And how about Sholem Aleichem? His real works around Tevye, for example, rather than the Americanized “Fiddler”?

[@Historian212]

If antisemitism wasn’t part of Horn’s life growing up, it’s because she grew up in a Jewish bubble. In the mid-1960s, my NYC family moved about 50 miles out, to a rural/suburban community where there were few Jews. And I, nine years old in late 1964 when we moved, encountered plenty of antisemitism among the kids, who either shunned or openly expressed it in ways their parents were socialized not to, in public. Horn also probably didn’t spend much time in church, which I did, in my late teens (long story). In churches, the standard supersessionist theologies, negative stereotypes of Jewish authorities, and other slurs, among very nice and apparently well-meaning people, were all too clear to me. As was the co-opting of a tortured Jewish teacher. When asked, once upon a time, if I thought Jesus - upon his projected return - would feel more comfortable at a synagogue or a church, I immediately thought: first of all, he’d be speaking Aramaic and reading texts in Hebrew, so where do you think? But of course, I gave some universalist answer to make the Christian inquirer feel ok, and so as to avoid entering into a debate. As an adult, I once attended an Easter morning service at a Roman Catholic church - my then-partner had a daughter whom his ex-wife was raising to be Catholic - and at the start of the service, the senior priest opened in a way to lighten the mood of the packed sanctuary. He said that he’d awakened that morning to a perfect, bright, cloudless day, and had thought: “What are we, Jews?” And the whole crowd erupted in laughter. This was a play on a trope I’d encountered previously, a bizarre paranoia about who is really God’s chosen people: the notion that the weather’s always bad on Easter but great on Passover. (Which is, of course, ridiculous.) The things people say when they don’t know there’s a Jew in the room (most people don’t identify me as a Jew on sight). Horn has not had this experience. But many other Jews have. That 25-year post-WWII period also included restricted country clubs and neighborhoods (no Jews or Blacks allowed), restricted hiring practices (“Christian only” job ads) and college-entry quotas, especially among Ivy League schools. See the great movie starring Gregory Peck called “Gentlemen’s Agreement.” Made right after the war, it told the truth about “genteel” antisemitism, which was rampant outside of Jewish neighborhoods. Horn should perhaps check herself on this. Her book is phenomenal, though, and her writing is top-notch.

[@adamk5890]

She still is in a bubble. Her book glosses over current events and is mostly on past people she likes and past events of bigotry. She doesn't even want to deal with the present. Just learn Talmud is her solution. That is how she ends her book.

[@jamesyanchek779]

@@adamk5890 So? What's so bad about bubbles? Aren't the eggs which protect the young chicks a kind of bubble? Do they not show Gods loving protection of even "the birds of the air?" Are not the wombs of our mothers also bubbles given to us to protect us? No one could survive in this often harsh world w/o so many bubbles. The soft drink industry makes quite a good living off all those bubbles, as does Moet Champaign.

[@adamk5890]

@@jamesyanchek779 When you are a child maybe but an adult can't live in a bubble.

[@Davidtechguy]

We are ALL in a bubble. Don’t kid yourself. These “bubbles” are called “personal experience”

[@adamk5890]

@@Davidtechguy Yeah, ok. Whatever you say.

[@alexcarter8807]

I'm gonna get my mitts on a copy ASAP.

[@andrewblitzer7781]

If I recall correctly a psychiatrist named Bruno Bettelheim wrote a book called Uses of Enchantment where he claimed that quote from Anne Frank saying people were good at heart was made up by someone else. Maybe you should check it out.

[@punkrockgirl5836]

Um

[@Historian212]

Google is your friend.

[@adamk5890]

I spent the Sabbath listening to the audiobook as it come up as an up and coming book and never heard of her before. I learned a few things but I feel the book was basically had a provocative title to buy her book and a lot of her book had nothing to do with this and her ending was very troubling basically she feels we should just bury our head in the sand and learn Talmud because the news is bothersome and and not follow the news because it is too upsetting. What gets me about all that is she criticizes others for being the "good token Jew" that is easy to like because they don't fight back and don't even realize they are being used. I feel the same way about Dara Horn. She is very much what she criticizes. She is more worried about "cancel culture" then hate speech I guess because she thinks these people are her friends. Same with the fact as a woman she would love learning the Talmud which is 100% men. Of course retrograde men love women who approve of their reactionary behavior even though the Talmud wss written in the exile when Jews had few rights and likely Jews imitated the misogyny of the society around them. So this book has lot of projection of her own issues to others that it is amazing she doesn't realize she is being similar to the people like Ann Frank she criticizes that the world loves Ann Frank because she is an easy Jew to like because she says nothing to challenge you. Same here. They love Dara Horn because her response to hatred is to ignore it and learn Talmud and Daf Yomi. That is exactly what non-Jews who dislike Jews want that Jew should not criticize what goes on by Non-Jews because they would be violating free speech and they SHOULD STAY IN THEIR LINE AND SHUT UP and not be involved in the world.

[@Historian212]

Wow. What book did you read? She’s calling attention to this issue and is doing everything except telling people to bury their heads in the sand. Talk about projection. Since she’s a Reform Jew, the last thing she’d do is advise people to just study Talmud. Talk about projection.

[@adamk5890]

@@Historian212 Obviously you didn't read the book or listen to the audiobook. Because her last chapter is to watch the news less and learn Talmud more because it is too upsetting. She does not offer any solution. She also isn't reform. Most of her book are discussing the past as well. Not recent events which she spends very little time on. She is not even drawing attention to anything but her projection of her own issues.

[@maslina10]

@@adamk5890 A crude misinterpretation. Oh, she "does not offer any solution"? Is that your unhappiness with an absence of "salvation, epiphany, or a moment of grace"? You are making her point.

[@adamk5890]

@@maslina10 I am not a Chirstian. So basically it is just a book that she has no answers for her own venting. I guess some people for someone else venting with no answers and acting pseudo smart.

[@maslina10]

@@adamk5890 Her book has other chapters. An her main point is not the Christian model of Western literature, but for the deep propensity of the West to extract some trite utility from Jewish deaths.