Sleepless Dreamer's Reviews > People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

This book was very hard for me to read and that surprised me. In any case, before I say anything else: this book is very much recommended.

Dara Horn has articulated thoughts and ideas in a way I had never considered before. This is one of the best descriptions of Judaism in modern times I’ve ever read. So so sharp, this book grasps so much that I see in daily life. Horn writes savagely, fiercely. Her writing is comedic and it's intelligent and it's well researched. It’s inspiring, it’s empowering. I wish I could read the equivalent book for other groups in society.

In each chapter, Horn delves into a different topic relating to Jews. She weaves in history and her own personal life to really tell these stories in a way that is personal and just plain fascinating. From the Jewish community of Harbin, China to the website Diarna that chronicles Jewish life in MENA with 3D photos, each tale is just intriguing and eye-opening.

And it's also just very very sad. I don't want to victimize myself and other Jews. I don't want to believe that antisemitism is so prevalent and has such long history. I don't want these stories to shape me. Reading this book made me relate so deeply to those early Zionists who looked at all of this trauma and basically said, "that's not mine, this weakness isn't me, that’s the old Jews, we’re something else".

And I wonder if the reason I find this so appealing is because dealing with Jewish history is overwhelming. It's scary to consider that Jewish graveyards are scattered all over the world, that our communities have a past tense, it's always that one Jewish family left, that one old rabbi remembering what a great community it was until the pogrom, until the expulsion, until the massacre.

I want to say that this isn't my Judaism but can I? This is the legacy and this is the present. And simultaneously, I’m very well-aware of the tendency of Jews to see our trauma in the center. Sometimes, it feels like Judaism is so focused on tragedy that we cannot help but see ourselves as the victims forever. Judaism as a religion is very good at balancing victimhood with joy but Jews as a people are not.

The opening chapter is the one that gives this book its name and aside from the last chapter, I think it’s my favorite. Horn points out that the Jews that get attention are always dead and often forgiving. As the classic Christian lore, we ask of Jews to be the ones to show us redemption, to absolve of us our sins. If Anne Frank says we are all good people, she must know what she's talking about. We don't want to see living Jews describe modern day antisemitism, we don't want to see Jews who are vengeful and angry, who are not forgiving.

In another fantastic chapter, Horn points out that the Holocaust has also created a societal limit. Many things are bad but they are not the Holocaust. And if they’re not the Holocaust, they’re not that bad. The Holocaust symbolizes all that is wrong but also makes us feel better because no matter what we’re doing, we’re not committing or experiencing another Holocaust. So if Jews suffer through a hate crime, it’s fine because it’s not the Holocaust. The expulsion of Mizrahi Jews is fine because it’s not the Holocaust. None of this is the Holocaust.

Horn also describes the difference between “Purim antisemitism” and “Hannukah antisemitism”. Purim anitsemitism is the classic villain who wants to murder all Jews. Hannukah antisemitism, however, is more insidious. It is the pressure to assimilate, being told that Jews are okay, so long as they . We like Jews as long as they’re not religious, don’t speak Hebrew or Yiddish, served in the German army, look European enough. As long as they’re not Zionists, as long as they hate Israel. The idea that if only Jews lose enough of their culture, they will be accepted. This, too, is antisemitism.

The part about Varian Fry was also a highlight. Horn points out that the people who saved Jews make up a tiny tiny percent of Europeans, despite the great attention to them. I had goosebumps when she points out that Varian Fry saved the "culture of Europe" but did not save Hasidic Jews. Their culture was apparently not worth saving- no one saved them. I gained so much respect for the Ultra-Orthodox once I realized that their existence is a form of resistance, it is an insistence to remain, even when their entire communities were massacred in the Holocaust and despite cultural pressure to assimilate into Israeli society. It takes courage to look at the world around you and insist that you’re staying true to your own culture.

I do have two points of criticism.

First, the comment on the boycotts of Israel.

Horn makes a brief comparison of German boycotts of Jewish goods to BDS now. I get it- such boycotts harm Diaspora Jews significantly more than they harm Israelis. I’m sure it does feel like you’re a Jew and everything Jews do will be eventually boycotted for reasons that sound socially acceptable. And yet, I don't want special treatment. BDS people are dumb but I do not believe the majority are intentionally employing techniques used for antisemitism.

I heard Ireland's foreign minister the other day say that Israel should be flattered that it is being held to a Western standard. And at first, I was mildly annoyed. The assumption that the Western standard during wars is inherently better is somewhat hilarious. But thinking about it also made me agree in some ways- it is flattering. We are expected to act as any European country would act when around us, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Sudan get their own standards.

And that’s okay. Sure, we can complain but I do not want Israel to get a free pass because the world feels bad for Jews or thinks badly of the Middle East. I’d like these people to question why they’re so obsessed with Jews but when they raise solid points (and they do), using our historical trauma as a shield is cowardly. If we're in the wrong, we must fix it. Yes, even if Assad is up there doing what Assad does, even if Yemen's civil war is a horrible horrible man-made tragedy. Even if 99% of the people speaking against Israel come from countries that treated their Jewish community terribly.

Israel’s geo-political troubles certainly correlate with antisemitism but they cannot be summed up with it. When the Hamas or Hezbollah or Palestinian Islamic Jihad threaten Israel, they use antisemitic imagery but I struggle to compare it to other forms of antisemitism because the entire framework is different- I do not blame any Palestinian who hates Jews, just as I don’t blame any Israeli who hates Arabs. We’ve been through a lot.

So no- a boycott of Israel isn't like a boycott of Jews in the thirties, even if it feels the same.

My second point is that despite all attempts, I still felt like this was a little bit too Ashkenazi oriented. It still felt like Horn is very very much an American Jew, with everything that entails. The 13 pages of Mizrahi history compared to the hundreds of pages about Ashkenazi's (and whatever USSR Jews are in the mood to call themselves this time, USSR Jews have got to collectively decide if they're Ashkenazi or Mizrahi or neither). There is always more to do to emphasize other Jewish stories and while this book is a great start, I wasn’t sure that it was exactly enough.

As an Israeli, I worry about the war with Hezbollah. I worry about the rising number of Haredim and their ability to contribute to the workforce, I worry about the failing Palestinian leadership, I worry about the mess that is the West Bank and the never-ending suffering of Palestinians by our hand, I worry about the militarization of Israeli society, I worry about Israeli society being unable to stay united. I don't worry about colleges banning kosher food.

In this sense, there’s room to question what are Jewish concerns nowadays, when the Jewish society is essentially split in two geographically. We are united by our Judaism, sure, but I'm not sure how much we're able to truly understand each other or really stand up for mutual struggles.

However, all in all, this is a fantastic book. I really really recommend it.

what i’m taking with me
- I've got to start reading Daf Yomi, I hope to start after I finish reading the Quran.

- I’m pretty sure the only direct antisemitism I’ve ever experienced personally irl was when I went to a doctor in London. When I explained the way my travel insurance works, the doctor’s response was to go, "wow, Jews are always so clever". At the time, being basically on my deathbed, my response was to mumble "I know plenty of stupid Jews," and he simply doubled down, talking about how we’re so smart, so clever, so good with money. I thought it was a weird interaction but I was mostly relieved the insurance worked (cause I have way less trust in Jews). And I wonder what legitimization do any of us have to connect this particular experience to a millennium of persecution.

- I also don't want Israel to be seen merely as a refuge, as that place where all the "last Jews of...." went to but that ship might have sailed.

- I do not want to spend my life talking about antisemitism. I want to talk about policy. I want to submerge myself in conversations on how to create negotiations that work, on how to create environment policies that allow Israelis and Palestinians to thrive but also defend our earth, on how to improve education cause God knows we are all ignorant on this conflict’s century long history, on how to build institutions that speak for and to everyone, on how to build bridges and break walls. I am scared that I’ll never be able to do that with this conflict because of all the loud politization and radicalism.

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The fact that Poland just had a march where they shouted "death to Jews" is literally unbelievable when 90% of Poland's Jewish community was killed in the Holocaust. I'm just staring at this like, Poland's Jewish population is now less than 0.05%, what more do you want?


Anyways, this book gave me a lot to think about, review to come!