Ruth R. Wisse was Professor of Yiddish literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard University from 1993-2014 and before that, helped found the Jewish Studies Department at McGill University. Currently a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund and recipient of its Herzl Prize, she has written widely on cultural and political subjects for the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, National Affairs, and other publications. Her books include The Schlemiel as Modern Hero, The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Literature and Culture, No Joke: Making Jewish Humor, If I Am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews, and Jews and Power. In 2007, she was awarded the National Medal for the Humanities, and in 2004, an Honorary Degree by Yeshiva University.
"Free as a Jew succeeds on three levels--personal, intellectual,
and cultural--and it is written in a gracefully modest style that
makes [Wisse's] points even more persuasive. Her final paragraph
contains a message: She dedicates the book to her students--and to
their students--'in the hope that they will retrieve and revive the
precious freedoms that are being lost.' [It is] a beautiful and
necessary book."--Rick Richman, Commentary
"Part memoir, part ethnography, part cautionary tale, Free as a Jew
should be read by all who care for the past, present, and future of
our people."--Elizabeth Kratz, JewishLink
"From the center of the storm comes a dishy and damning memoir from
the woman who brought Old World Yiddish scholarship and
intellectualism back from the dead. Deliciously, Ruth Wisse is
revealing all: the gaffes and regrets, the egos and arrogance, the
heckling, the joys, and the soul-crushing sadness. But even more,
this book lands as a battle cry to our youth and the entire
community. Hurry! Our heritage is so rich and our enemies so
insidious. There is little time with everything to lose and even
more to gain." --Masha Merkulova, Founding Executive Director, Club
Z
"Ruth Wisse's intellectual autobiography is a lasting work of
profound moral force and scathing political discernment; of a
passionately lived education that is itself a transforming
education for the reader; of a family record of refuge and
character that is also the history of a people. And more: at its
fiery heart is the teaching of a language and its
literature--Yiddish, born and rooted in polyglot Europe, while its
storytellers and poets everywhere and always retain the meanings of
Genesis. Free as a Jew can be read as a history of the future. Its
illuminations are likely to be as urgent one hundred years hence as
they are now."--Cynthia Ozick
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