People love dead Jews : reports from a haunted present / Dara Horn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horn, Dara, 1977- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death--Political aspects.

Death.

Jews--History.

Jews.

History.

Jews--Public opinion.

Jews--Persecutions--Public opinion.

Antisemitism--History.

Antisemitism.

Horn, Dara, 1977-.

Horn, Dara.

Genre:

History.

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xxi, 237 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2021]

Summary:

"A startling exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living. Reflecting on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the blockbuster travelling exhibition called "Auschwitz," the Jewish history of the Chinese city of Harbin, and the little known "righteous-gentile" Varian Fry, Dara Horn challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, as emblematic of the worst of evils the world has to offer, and so little respect for Jewish lives, as they continue to unfold in the present. Horn draws upon 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 in New Jersey, the profound and essential perspective offered by traditional religious practice, prayer, and study -- to assert the vitality, complexity and depth of this life against an anti-Semitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: In the haunted present

1. Everyone's (second) favorite dead Jew

2. Frozen Jews

3. Dead American Jews, part one

4. Executed Jews

5. Fictional dead Jews

6. Legends of dead Jews

7. Dead American Jews, part two

8. On rescuing Jews and others

9. Dead Jews of the desert

10. Blockbuster dead Jews

11. Communing with Shylock

12. Dead American Jews, part three: turning the page

Acknowledgments

Works consulted.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [233]-237).

National Jewish Book Awards - Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice, Winner, 2021

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Schneidman Fund bookplate.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9780393531565

0393531562

OCLC:

1233265759