So they crafted and clung to the tale of the funny thing that happened to Grandpa at Ellis Island. Author Dara Horn shares how individuals and institutions represent Jewish suffering and how this suffering is repurposed for the benefit of others. But to tell their children that story would prove that America is not all that different, that here, too, Jews face prejudice, discrimination and violence. People Love Dead Jews is a collection of essays on the disturbing and occasionally surreal ways the world gives attention to dead Jews and how this attention shapes the treatment of living Jews today. Then they discovered that they couldn’t get a job as Rosenberg but could get hired as Rose. They had come to a land that they thought promised the American Dream. Her answer: If Jews tell the truth about American antisemitism, they look like fools. Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has. Relying on the historian Kirsten Fermaglich’s meticulous research into New York City name-changing petitions that proved, beyond a doubt, that immigrants’ names were not altered at Ellis Island, Horn asks why Jews cling to the fiction that some misguided immigration agent changed their ancestors’ names. A startling and profound exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living. She turns away from Varian Fry rescuing Jewish artists in Vichy France and the Syrian synagogue smashed to rubble on her flickering screen. Encountering murderous antisemitism on American soil forces Horn to confront history closer to home.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |