Tikvah
Ruth E. Wisse

Dr. Ruth Wisse

Dr. Ruth R. Wisse is professor emerita of Yiddish and comparative literatures at Harvard and a distinguished senior fellow at Tikvah. Her memoir Free as a Jew: a Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation, chapters of which appeared in Mosaic in somewhat different form, is out from Wicked Son Press.

Latest Content

  1. Observation ·

    How the Jews Remain an Eternal People

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    We Jews are the blue and white in the red, white, and blue.

    How the Jews Remain an Eternal People
  2. Monthly Essay ·

    The Very Model of a New York Intellectual

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Abraham Cahan was one of America's first great Jewish newspapermen, and set an example of independent thinking that the nation could sorely use today.

    The Very Model of a New York Intellectual
  3. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2023, Part I

    By Elliott Abrams, Cynthia Ozick, Neil Rogachevsky, Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Featuring prime ministers, kidnappings, popes, silences, exiled shadows, portraits, intellectual origins, the best minds, and more.

    The Best Books of 2023, Part I
  4. Observation ·

    The Logic of Jewish History

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Lacking freedom, Jews once developed an ethic of martyrdom. Now, they don’t need martyrs, they need to stand and fight.

    The Logic of Jewish History
  5. Monthly Essay ·

    I.L. Peretz and the Golden Chain

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The great Yiddish writer envisioned an unbroken transmission of Jewishness through the generations, from biblical prophets to talmudic sages to literary giants like Heine—and himself.

    I.L. Peretz and the Golden Chain
  6. Observation ·

    The Biden Administration’s Anti-Semitism Blindspot

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Will the administration’s new strategy to counter anti-Semitism camouflage its own inaction?

    The Biden Administration’s Anti-Semitism Blindspot
  7. Monthly Essay ·

    The Sage and Scribe of Modern Israel

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The novelist and rabbi Haim Sabato infuses tradition into fiction as well as any of the Yiddish greats. The difference? His work is unencumbered by modern angst.

    The Sage and Scribe of Modern Israel
  8. Observation ·

    The Asian American Challenge to Affirmative Action—and to American Jews

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Why haven't more American Jews joined the many Asian-American students and their parents protesting a policy reminiscent of the 1920s?

    The Asian American Challenge to Affirmative Action—and to American Jews
  9. Observation ·

    Why, Despite Good Intentions, Ken Burns’s “The U.S. and the Holocaust” Fails

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Focusing on America’s failures to save more Jews in the Holocaust unintentionally strengthens the forces that would threaten Jews today. Here's how.

    Why, Despite Good Intentions, Ken Burns’s “The U.S. and the Holocaust” Fails
  10. Observation ·

    What Can American Jews Do?

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The direct target of anti-Jewish politics may be the Jews, but the more consequential damage is to the land of Lincoln. What can Jews do to help?

    What Can American Jews Do?
  11. Observation ·

    Is the Writing on the Wall for America’s Jews?

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Smiling at my visible distress, my neighbor said he was surprised: did I really not know what was going on to Jews around us? But it's our responsibility to stay.

    Is the Writing on the Wall for America’s Jews?
  12. Observation ·

    The Intensity of the Abortion Debate Is a Sign of America’s Vitality

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    That America still so passionately debates abortion marks the difference between the stagnation of Europe and the hopeful civilization of the United States.

    The Intensity of the Abortion Debate Is a Sign of America’s Vitality
  13. Observation ·

    American Jewry’s Stunted Sons

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The middle of the 20th century inaugurated a time when American Jewish sons stopped being able to imagine themselves as Jewish fathers—and we're still living in it.

    American Jewry’s Stunted Sons
  14. Observation ·

    Johanna Kaplan’s Serious American Jewish Comedy

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The characters in her new story collection are fully formed creatures of that transitional 20th-century moment between European Jewish survivors and American forgetters.

    Johanna Kaplan’s Serious American Jewish Comedy
  15. Observation ·

    What the Children of American Jewish Communists Needed, and What They Owe

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The children of Jewish Communists needed a therapeutic process to work through the effects of growing up in a political cult. They didn't get it.

    What the Children of American Jewish Communists Needed, and What They Owe
  16. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)

    By Elliott Abrams, Richard Goldberg, Neil Rogachevsky, Jonathan Silver, Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Five of our writers pick several favorites each, featuring a duke's children, Jewish treasures, zealots and emancipators, revolts, dual allegiances, spies, and more.

    The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)
  17. Observation ·

    Canaries in the Coal Mine: Dara Horn and Bari Weiss

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Jews can do their fellow citizens a favor by identifying the sources of cultural poison before the toxicity turns fatal. Hardly anybody is doing it better than these two.

    Canaries in the Coal Mine: Dara Horn and Bari Weiss
  18. Observation ·

    “All the World Wants the Jews Dead: An Overwrought View from the Peak at the Bottom”

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Before Dara Horn's People Love Dead Jews, and before Bari Weiss's "Everybody Hates the Jews," there was Cynthia Ozick's still powerful and urgent essay in Esquire .

    “All the World Wants the Jews Dead: An Overwrought View from the Peak at the Bottom”
  19. Observation ·

    The Crackpot Ideas of Yiddish Fiction’s Most Improbable Scenarios Become Real

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    S. Ansky's radical yeshiva boys used to seem unreal. But observing today's political scene has taught me to understand them.

    The Crackpot Ideas of Yiddish Fiction’s Most Improbable Scenarios Become Real
  20. Observation ·

    A Threat Assessment for American Jewry, Part Two

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Parts of the Jewish people stand up to the barrage of anti-Semitism, but others do not. Those others are part of the threat.

    A Threat Assessment for American Jewry, Part Two
  21. Observation ·

    A Threat Assessment for American Jewry, Part One

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Which of the recent samples of anti-Semitism—on the street, on campus, in Congress, or in the clergy—is the greatest threat to America and the Jews?

    A Threat Assessment for American Jewry, Part One
  22. Observation ·

    Two Favorite Poems, and How they Define Israel and America

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus and "The Silver Platter" by Natan Alterman distill, reinforce, and hallow what makes each nation distinctive.

    Two Favorite Poems, and How they Define Israel and America
  23. Observation ·

    The Hounding of Noam Pianko

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The latest drama in the field of Jewish studies has turned into a campaign to reframe the perpetuation of Jewishness as a dystopian project of enforced reproduction.

    The Hounding of Noam Pianko
  24. Observation ·

    How Herzl’s Wardrobe Galvanized the Jews

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Back in my teens, when I began reading and thinking about Zionism, I thought the founder of the movement was a snob. I was dead wrong.

    How Herzl’s Wardrobe Galvanized the Jews
  25. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)

    By Haviv Rettig Gur, Ed Husain, Martin Kramer, Robert W. Nicholson, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David Wolpe

    Five more of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring what Jews are for, magicians, assassins, call signs, chaos, separated siblings, and more.

    The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)
  26. Observation ·

    A Tribute to Mosaic’s Founding Editor

    By Eric Cohen, Dr. Ruth Wisse, Martin Kramer, Hillel Halkin, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik

    Some of Mosaic' s regular writers reflect on Neal Kozodoy and his accomplishments.

    A Tribute to Mosaic’s Founding Editor
  27. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)

    By Martin Kramer, Sarah Rindner, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David Wolpe

    Six more Mosaic writers share their favorites, featuring shadow strikes, orchards, gleanings, constitutional evolutions and revolutions, serotonin, odd women, and more.

    The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)
  28. Monthly Essay ·

    What Saul Bellow Saw

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    The Jewish writer who became America’s most decorated novelist spent his early years prodding the nation’s soul. Then, sensing danger to it, he took up the role of guardian.

    What Saul Bellow Saw
  29. Observation ·

    Reckoning; or, the Distressing Transformation of Harvard (and American Academia)

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    What I witnessed in my two decades of teaching at Harvard.

    Reckoning; or, the Distressing Transformation of Harvard (and American Academia)
  30. Observation ·

    Arrival; or, Yiddish Makes Its Way to Harvard Yard

    By Dr. Ruth Wisse

    At arguably the moment of Harvard's greatest involvement with Jews and Judaism, new movements in (anti-)intellectual thought started to creep in, too.

    Arrival; or, Yiddish Makes Its Way to Harvard Yard