Lost and Found: The Hidden Layers of Jewish Language and Literature with Dara Horn

This episode features author Dara Horn, who discusses her approach to embedding “coded language” and hidden Jewish references, or “afikomanim,” in her English novels, aiming to enrich American Jewish culture and connect readers to Jewish texts and traditions. She also shares her personal journey, including learning Yiddish to better understand Hebrew literature, her family’s ancestral Yiddish background, and her new nonprofit, the Tell Institute, which educates the broader American public about Jewish civilization.

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Dara Horn is the award-winning author of five novels, the essay collection People Love Dead Jews, and the graphic novel One Little Goat. She is a scholar of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, a frequent commentator for a variety of publications on American Jewish life, and the founder of a new initiative to educate a broader American public about Jewish civilization. She lives with her family in New Jersey.