I just finished reading Dara Horn’s book, gruesomely titled People Love Dead Jews. In addition to being a disturbing read, it is also quite compelling. Her vignettes revealing the stories of so many individuals and obscure places provides an unusual look into the world’s complex and sometimes fraught relationship with the Jews.
Among her wide diversity of topics and expansive journeys around the world, she takes us to a website called Diarna. Through its virtual pages, one is given a tour of the now desolate world of Middle Eastern and North African Jewry. Once vibrant and thriving, the synagogues, schools, and cemeteries are now in various states of disrepair or repurposing. Sites are identified either because those who know of them bring them to the attention of the website designers, or, they are already known, and photographs, ancient and modern, are diligently collected by the website’s editors. One can easily spend hours jumping from one region to the next examining the photos and exploring lost worlds.
Perhaps, what is most striking for this Ashkenazi Jew is how much richness of the Mizrahi and Sephardic has been overlooked by contemporary American Judaism. This “Ashkenormative” approach to Judaism leads us to the false presumption that the diaspora Judaisms that span the region from Morocco to Iran and Yemen pale in comparison to that which evolved in Europe. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Both communities added richly to the Judaism that we all embrace, both communities are integral to the continuing vibrancy of Jewish life. Diarna, even in its revelations of lost worlds, is one more source that contributes to a richer understanding of Jewish history and the beautiful, varied complexities of Jewish identity.
— Rabbi Ron Stern