Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads)

“Since ancient times, in every place they have ever lived, Jews have represented the frightening prospect of freedom. As long as Jews existed in any society, there was evidence that it in fact wasn't necessary to believe what everyone else believed, that those who disagreed with their neighbors could survive and even flourish against all odds. The Jews' continued distinctiveness, despite overwhelming pressure to become like everyone else, demonstrated their enormous effort to cultivate that freedom: devotion to law and story, deep literacy, and an absolute obsessiveness about consciously transmitting those values between generations. The existence of Jews in any society is a reminder that freedom is possible, but only with responsibility—and that freedom without responsibility is no freedom at all.”
― Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

“Only when information is combined with belief does it become knowledge, and only knowledge leads to action.”
― Jonathan Freedland, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

“the entire appeal of Anne Frank to the wider world—as opposed to those who knew and loved her—lay in her lack of a future.”
― Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

“Information is necessary, to be sure, but it is never sufficient. Information must also be believed.”
― Jonathan Freedland, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World