People Love Dead Jews. That's the title of novelist and literary scholar Dara Horn's provocative book, which explores the ways in which non-Jewish societies exploit Jewish histories and atrocities to "flatter" themselves and erase Jewish realities. In an episode filled with more ghoulish humor than usual, we follow Dara’s journey of uncovering a troubling (and often truly absurd) history. We also can’t help ourselves and go meta: not only raking on the media (as we’re wont to do) but also nerding out about the difference between Jewish and Western literary narratives.
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On the agenda:
-Memorializing dead Jews, erasing living Jews [9:44-26:35]
-Why does empathy require similarity? [26:36-30:33]
-Jews disrupting historical narratives [30:34-34:54]
-Anti-semitism, assimilation, and Jewish agents of erasure [34:55-42:38]
-"I spent 20 years not writing this book" [42:39-49:29]
-How I'm Supposed to Respond to Anti-Semitism [49:30-53:23]
-Victim Blaming to Feel Good [53:24-58:46]
-Holocaust museums have failed [58:47- 1:05:56]
-What Readers Want (Resolution not Ambiguity) [1:05:57-1:20:00]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
Hooked on Dead Jews (w/ Dara Horn)