Jewish speaker series kicks off

As conversations spoken in English and Hebrew quieted in the Indiana Memorial Union East State Room Monday night, the 2013 Jewish Writers Series began with an hour-long presentation by Jewish-American novelist Dara Horn.

“What makes someone a Jewish writer in America today? Their likelihood of being asked to participate in a panel where they will be asked whether or not they consider themselves a Jewish writer,” Horn said jokingly to an audience of IU faculty, students and community members. “So by that standard, I think I qualify as a Jewish writer.”

Horn was invited to speak through the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program, which plans to bring four contemporary Jewish writers to campus throughout the semester.

The series is funded by the Dorit and Gerald Paul Program in Jewish Culture and the Arts.

As a fifth-generation Jewish-American, Horn, who also has a doctorate in Yiddish and Hebrew literature, spoke about how her novels connected to Jewish culture and religion and how they reflect the identification struggle of the Jewish-American.

“I think we’re in a very unusual situation in America today,” Horn said. “We live in a culture where there is one of the largest Jewish communities in the history of the world, but it’s a community that doesn’t primarily use a Jewish language. This loss of a common Jewish language is something a lot of people mourn.”

Horn said her novels, which include “The World To Come” and “In the Image,” use references to religious text and Jewish history in a way that Americans understand.

“What I try to do in my book is to write in English as though it were a Jewish language,” Horn said. “I’m trying to create a language and create an audience for this
language.”

As a part of the Jewish Writers Series, all participating authors will visit the American Jewish writers class taught by professor of English John Schilb.

The class has read “The World To Come” and will read at least one piece of work from each visiting author.

“From my point of view, what’s really exciting is since this is a 200-level course, mostly freshmen and sophomores are getting to meet major writers and ask them about their novels,” Schilb said. “That’s really rare.”

Graduate student Jessica Carr, who has attended several lectures through the Borns Jewish Studies Program in the past, said listening to a novelist was a good change of pace.

“The author series is nice, because we’re used to having scholars,” Carr said. “It’s a different experience to hear someone talk about literature and popular culture.”

As a mother of four children under 5 years old, Horn said she was grateful to speak in a more peaceful environment than her home in New Jersey.

“Thank you very much for listening to me,” Horn said. “Because no one listens to me at home.”