Book Review: People Love Dead Jews

Horn, Dara. People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. W. W. Norton & Company, NY: 2021.

Front cover of People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

This book is well-written, insightful, and highly informative. Her analysis of American antisemitism is excellent… and disturbing. The topic of antisemetism in the United States today reminded me of the PBS 3-episode documentary The U. S. and the Holocaust.

The introduction reeled me in. It’s kind of a memoir, in addition to introducing the theme of the book.

Jewish Heritage Sites: places that used to have a Jewish community but no longer do thanks to antisemitic violence.

There you have it: Anyone pooh-poohing claims that Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice is antisemitic… is an antisemitic gaslighter. Even a ten-year-old can see right through it, gaslighters.(Mic drop.)

It’s certainly a light bulb moment when the author points out that Americans hid their antisemitism somewhat for decades because of the Holocaust, and now that people who remember the 1940s are dying out, American antisemitism is blatant and violent. However, unlike the author, I believe Trumpism (the current fascism) is also to blame. It’s not one or the other: it’s both.

I installed the Sefaria app right after reading about it in this book. It contains the Talmud and other Jewish…