Horn draws on her own family life-trying to explain Shakespeare's Shylock to a curious ten-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in 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 anti-Semitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never Forget", is on the rise.
In a first for Jewish Book Week, as we move to ensure our tradition of presenting international speakers in these changing times, the Eternal Life and The World To Come author will be joining us live from the US for our inaugural Live On-Screen Event at Kings Place, so you can enjoy the experience with other festival-goers, as well as being available online wherever you are.Reflecting on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the blockbuster travelling exhibition called "Auschwitz", the Jewish history of the Chinese city of Harbin and the little known "righteous-gentile" Varian Fry, Dara Horn challenges us 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. As well as her travels and research she also draws on her own family life, from trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious ten-year-old to her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school.
She challenges us to confront the reasons why there is so much fascination with Jewish deaths and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present. In the much-anticipated People Love Dead Jews: Reports From A Haunted Present, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the “righteous Gentile” Varian Fry.
Often asked to write on subjects related to Jewish culture – and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly antisemitic attacks – she was troubled to realise what all these assignments had in common: she was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In-hall tickets are priced at £12.50Īt-home streaming tickets can be booked for £9.50 by following this linkĪ two-time National Jewish Book Award winner for her fiction, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager, for publications including The New York Times, The Paris Review and The Wall Street Journal. This event is a live broadcast onto the big screen in Hall 2.
0 kommentar(er)
