Jewish Press of Pinellas County

‘People Love Dead Jews’ author to speak March 21


Dara Horn Photo by Michael Priest

Dara Horn Photo by Michael Priest

An evening with Dara Horn, author of the new book with the provocative title, “People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present,” will be held in-person and virtually on Monday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. in an event hosted by Temple Ahavat Shalom and co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The non-fiction work has been a popular book club title since its release in September 2021.

Along with “People Love Dead Jews,” Horn is the author of five works of fiction including her first novel, “In the Image,” which won a Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, and her 2006 book, “The World to Come,” which won a National Jewish Book Award. She won a second National Jewish Book Award in 2021 for “People Love Dead Jews.”

Horn received her doctorate in Yiddish and Hebrew literature from Harvard University. She has taught courses at Sarah Lawrence College and Yeshiva University, and held the Gerald Weinstock Visiting Professorship in Jewish Studies at Harvard.

Horn will be at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor for the presentation, a meet and greet and book signing. General admission starts at $54 and sponsorships are available. Those attending are asked to wear masks.

Those who prefer to view the event via livestreaming should go to www.ahavatshalom.org.

Call the temple office at (727) 785-8811 or email adminassistant@ahavatshalom.org for more information.

About the book

In “People Love Dead Jews,” Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the blockbuster traveling exhibition “Auschwitz,” and the Jewish history of the Chinese city of Harbin.

Horn challenges readers “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,” her website darahorn.com states.

The website notes that Horn “draws on her own family’s life – trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious 10-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks at 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 antisemitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of ‘Never forget,’ is on the rise.”

Reviews of “Dead Jews” are glowing:

“So necessary… People Love Dead Jews is an outstanding book with a bold mission. It criticizes people, artworks and public institutions that few others dare to challenge.” — The New York Times

“Searing … Enlivened by Horn’s sharp sense of humor and fluid prose, this penetrating account will provoke soul-searching by Jews and non-Jews alike.” – Publisher’s Weekly.

“‘People Love Dead Jews’ is, of all things, a deeply entertaining book, from its whopper of a title on… Horn is a masterful essayist… She has the instincts of a stand-up comic with something deadly serious on her mind.” – Tablet Magazine.

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