By Sarah Wapner Straus Center Impact and Recruitment Officer

Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik and Dr. Ruth Wisse

On March 29, 2022, the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought hosted Dr. Ruth Wisse, the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University emerita and Yeshiva University honorary doctorate recipient. Dr. Wisse, a renowned scholar and writer, joined Straus Center Director Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik in conversation on “Jews, Power, and Politics,” with a focus on her recent book, Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation. “Dr. Wisse is a great scholar and one of the most insightful readers of literature, and Jewish literature in particular, in the world,” said Rabbi Soloveichik in his introductory remarks. “She is a forthright defender of the State of Israel while holding incredibly prestigious roles in the academy itself. She is an advocate of free expression and speaks out on behalf of the Jewish people.” Dr. Wisse began her remarks with an emphasis on Jewish political power and the State of Israel. “We grew up knowing we could do anything, but there was a missing element in Judaism. Jews were good at everything, but we had the worst political record in human history,” she reflected. “To lose six million Jews in five years is not a great political victory—Jewish political failure was a missing link.” But, as Dr. Wisse went on to argue, the establishment of the State of Israel fundamentally changed the Jewish political condition. “Judaism and political intelligence dare not be an oxymoron. Jews recovered their sovereignty after two thousand years, something unheard of in human history, and in the very same decade when Jews were almost destroyed. Show me a miracle that compares. It’s extraordinary.” On the question of American citizenship, Dr. Wisse emphatically rejected the trope of Jewish dual loyalties. “To be an American citizen, you must do citizenship and win over the polity with ideas. Modern Orthodox Jews are counted on to combine a commitment to Judaism and citizenship of the first order. The accusation of dual loyalty is nonsense. Our ideas have to prevail in both America and in Israel. We have to fight on these two fronts. Someone who is a loyal Jew is a loyal American citizen. If you’re ready to fight for Israel, you’re ready to fight for America,” Dr. Wisse emphasized. Dr. Wisse also addressed the rise of anti-Zionism and antisemitism across college campuses and expressed profound disappointment in her colleagues who adopted these sentiments. “As an academic, the thing you fear the most is losing the respect of your colleagues. But there is something so much worse, and that's to lose respect for your colleagues. I can't understand how they continue to let something happen that is wrong and not react.” In response to growing intolerance toward pro-Israel students and faculty and controversies over free speech, Dr. Wisse worked tirelessly to meet and connect with students at Harvard who were committed to openness and the exchange of ideas on campus. “I was the faculty advisor for the Republican Club, the Stand-Up Comedy Club, and campus chapter of Opus Dei, and the Students for Safe Israel Club,” she explained. “I believe that pro-Israel students need to build allegiances with other groups, making political alliances to get things done, or putting pressure on those who are negatively inclined. We are not the defendants. We are the prosecution.” During the Q&A that followed, Straus Scholar Benjy Gottesman asked Dr. Wisse for her insights on the future of Jewish life in the diaspora and the relationship between diaspora Jews and the State of Israel. “Moving to Israel is a wonderful thing; there's nothing greater. Israel is the center of Jewish life,” said Dr. Wisse. “However, much as we Jews accomplish in the United States, we will be judged on one thing: did we or did we not secure the State of Israel working from America?” But Dr. Wisse also emphasized the deep connection between America and the Jews. “Don't underestimate what it is to be a Jew in America,” she cautioned. “America is very important to the Jews, to Israel, and the world. There hasn't been a country like this in history. We owe much to America.” Dr. Wisse concluded her remarks to the Straus Scholars with a call to action: “As Jews, do not retreat from the efforts to balance particularism and universalism. America is a free country—go out and encounter the world unafraid. We need moral confidence.” Dr. Wisse, who was born in Czernowitz, Romania, fled to Canada with her family in 1940. She earned her BA at McGill University in 1957 and, with the encouragement of the famed Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever, pursued a graduate degree in Yiddish studies at Columbia University, the only place in North America at the time that included Yiddish in a graduate degree program. She completed her Ph.D. at McGill and went on to found the university’s Department of Jewish Studies. In 1993, already an accomplished writer and public intellectual, Dr. Wisse became a professor of Yiddish at Harvard University. Dr. Wisse has world renown for her scholarship. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Dr. Wisse the National Humanities Medal, and, in 2021, she received the Jewish Leadership Conference’s Herzl Prize. This event was hosted in partnership with the Law, Policy, and Government Sector Connections and Partnerships for Success (CAPS) Community, coordinated by the Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development. The Straus Center and the Shevet Glaubach Center previously co-hosted a book talk with Dr. Andrew Porwancher to discuss his latest work, The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton. Other attendees at “Jews, Power, and Politics” included the Tikvah Fund’s Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, Dr. Shay Pilnik, director of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Tablet Magazine's Armin Rosen. You can learn more about the Straus Center by signing up for our newsletter here. Be sure to also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and connect with us on LinkedIn.