(JEWISH GROUP) People no longer love dead Jews

Two years ago, the novelist Dara Horn came out with a book titled, “People Love Dead Jews.”

At a time of a dramatic surge of antisemitism in America and around the globe, Horn’s book was a major contribution to our understanding of what the focus on the Holocaust and the other stories of historic antisemitism ultimately means.

Without dismissing the importance of teaching the history of antisemitism and learning about it, Horn suggested that the obsession with the past tragedies was a way for people to show that they cared about Jews and Jewish suffering while absolving them from caring about or fighting against antisemitism in the present. Jews as victims are commemorated, Jews standing up for themselves today are to be condemned.

And then came October 7 and its ongoing aftermath. Horn’s insight, which we should still keep in mind as we move forward, was radically upended. In a word, the reaction to the atrocities in Israel revealed in many circles that in fact, not only did many people hate live Jews, as indicated by the surge in antisemitic incidents, but they hated dead Jews as well.

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