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.

Dr. Ruth Wisse’s Courses

1 Lesson
The Wisdom of Jewish Literature
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
Available Monday, November 24. Pre-enroll now!
The great writers of the modern Jewish literary canon captured the struggles, questions, and aspirations of a people entering a new world. Confronted by the promises and perils of religion, Communism, liberty, assimilation, and capitalism, Jews turned to literature to understand—and to confront—the challenges of modern life. What emerged was a rich body of writing, a treasure to which Jews and all thoughtful readers can turn for insight, experience, and moral understanding.
In this nine-part series, Professor Ruth R. Wisse—one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Jewish fiction—guides you through the masterpieces of modern Jewish literature. Through stories by the greatest Jewish writers of the age, you'll see how they wrestled with God and man, tradition and change, suffering and joy—and how their words continue to illuminate both the Jewish and human conditions.
This course, and all of Ruth Wisse's work at Tikvah, is supported by the generosity of Robert L. Friedman.
9 Lessons
The New York Intellectuals: The First Generation
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Jews flooded into the United States. Large numbers settled in New York, fashioning an intellectual community that became the basis of American Jewish culture today.
Through essays, poems, novels, and short stories—in Yiddish and English—the writers who formed this “concentrated explosion of intellectual talent” sought to understand what this new country was about, and what it ought to be about. In doing so, they also prompted important changes in America itself.
In this course, the distinguished literary critic Dr. Ruth R. Wisse will explore the writing and ideas of the women and men who made up the first generation of the New York Intellectuals.
8 Lessons
The New York Intellectuals
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
The Jewish writers and thinkers known as the "New York Intellectuals" left an indelible impact on American thought and culture. Ruth Wisse explores their ideas on politics, religion, and culture, and assesses their legacy for America and the Jews.
8 Lessons
Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
Tikvah master teacher Ruth Wisse brings the stories of Tevye the Dairyman alive like never before. You'll laugh with Tevye, cry with him, and come to appreciate Sholem Aleichem's greatest character in a whole new light.
8 Lessons
Daniel Deronda
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
In eight definitive lectures, Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse explores the greatest novel of Jewish nationalism, guiding you through the drama, the romance, the politics, and the moral imagination of Daniel Deronda.