Ruth R. Wisse

b. 1936

Romanian-born Ruth R. Wisse grew up in Montreal and taught at McGill University before accepting a position as professor of Yiddish literature at Harvard University. Known for her strong advocacy for Israel, she is a literary critic, a translator, and an author on a range of Jewish topics.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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The Schlemiel as Modern Hero

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[ . . . ] Modern Jewish humor grows from the tension of having to reconcile a belief as absolute as Elijah’s with an experience of failure as absolute as that of the priests of Baal…

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If I Am Not for Myself...The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews

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Jews are associated with liberalism the way the French are with wine: it is considered native to their region. […] As I use it, liberalism is a belief in…