A review by duckoffimreading
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

5.0

Coincidentally, I started listening to this right as the Hamas-Israel conflict started. I've always found myself drawn to Jewish history - but have to admit much as Dara Horn points out, most of what I have read is specific to the Holocaust (which I am oversaturated on and have to limit my reading on). Horn does an absolutely excellent job recounting stories about Jews that I have been ignorant of (beyond WWII): Harbin, China and Soviet atrocities against Jews; Merchant of Venice (yes, I know...I woefully underread on Shakespeare); Jewish literature and how a lot of Jewish texts have no real ending unlike Christian based writing that typically has a beginning, middle, end and Diarna.org (just Google it!). And Alma Schindler - that girl was BEFORE her time! I found so many rabbit holes and added MONTHS of reading to my TBR. This is very short, but poignant perspective about how we all learn and talk about Jews - based on their suffering and death, despite ongoing antisemitism still happening today. As Horn summarizes, when the Holocaust is the bar for antisemitism, the bar is high. Highly recommend - well worded, full of insightful observations and tons of historical facts I didn't know before. This is easily a book I would consider reading again.