Hooked on Dead Jews (w/ Dara Horn)

Uncertain Things

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.

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