Ruth R. Wisse – författare

I. L. Peretz (1852–1915), the father of modern Yiddish literature, was a master storyteller and social critic who advocated a radical shift from religious observance to secular Jewish culture. Wisse explores Peretz’s writings in relation to his ideology, which sought to create a strong Jewish identity separate from the trappings of religion.

Part of the Jewish Encounter seriesTaking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power. Traditional Jews believed that upholding the covenant with God constituted a treaty with the most powerful force in the universe; this later transformed itself into a belief that, unburdened by a military, Jews could pursue their religious mission on a purely moral plain. Wisse, an eminent professor of comparative literature at Harvard, demonstrates how Jewish political weakness both increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence, and unwittingly goaded power-seeking nations to cast Jews as perpetual targets.Although she sees hope in the State of Israel, Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state, echoing Abba Eban''s observation that Israel was the only nation to win a war and then sue for peace. And then she draws a persuasive parallel to the United States today, as it struggles to figure out how a liberal democracy can face off against enemies who view Western morality as weakness. This deeply provocative book is sure to stir debate both inside and outside the Jewish world. Wisse''s narrative offers a compelling argument that is rich with history and bristling with contemporary urgency.From the Hardcover edition.

Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In this book, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking--as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Philip Roth. At the same time, Wisse draws attention to the precarious conditions that call Jewish humor into being--and the price it may exact from its practitioners and audience. Wisse broadly traces modern Jewish humor around the world, teasing out its implications as she explores memorable and telling examples from German, Yiddish, English, Russian, and Hebrew. Among other topics, the book looks at how Jewish humor channeled Jewish learning and wordsmanship into new avenues of creativity, brought relief to liberal non-Jews in repressive societies, and enriched popular culture in the United States. Even as it invites readers to consider the pleasures and profits of Jewish humor, the book asks difficult but fascinating questions: Can the excess and extreme self-ridicule of Jewish humor go too far and backfire in the process?And is "leave 'em laughing" the wisest motto for a people that others have intended to sweep off the stage of history?

Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In this book, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking--as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Philip Roth. At the same time, Wisse draws attention to the precarious conditions that call Jewish humor into being--and the price it may exact from its practitioners and audience. Wisse broadly traces modern Jewish humor around the world, teasing out its implications as she explores memorable and telling examples from German, Yiddish, English, Russian, and Hebrew. Among other topics, the book looks at how Jewish humor channeled Jewish learning and wordsmanship into new avenues of creativity, brought relief to liberal non-Jews in repressive societies, and enriched popular culture in the United States. Even as it invites readers to consider the pleasures and profits of Jewish humor, the book asks difficult but fascinating questions: Can the excess and extreme self-ridicule of Jewish humor go too far and backfire in the process?And is "leave 'em laughing" the wisest motto for a people that others have intended to sweep off the stage of history?

What makes a great Jewish book? What makes a book "Jewish" in the first place? Ruth R. Wisse, one of the leading scholars in the field of Jewish literature, sets out to answer these questions in The Modern Jewish Canon. Wisse takes us on an exhilarating journey through language and culture, penetrating the complexities of Jewish life as they are expressed in the greatest Jewish novels of the twentieth century, from Isaac Babel to Isaac Bashevis Singer, from Elie Wiesel to Cynthia Ozick. The modern Jewish canon Wisse proposes comprises those books that convey an experience of Jewish actuality, those in which "the authors or characters know and let the reader know that they are Jews," for better or worse. Wisse is not content merely to evaluate the great books of Jewish literature; she also links the works together to present a new kind of Jewish history, as it has been told through the literature of the past hundred years. She tells the story of a multilingual, multinational people, one that has experienced an often turbulent relationship with Hebrew (the liturgical and scriptural language) and Yiddish (the commonplace vernacular tongue), as well as with the numerous languages spoken by Jews around the world. Wisse insists that language informs the essential meaning of a Jewish work, creating and ratifying political and religious alliances, historical and cultural circumstance, and methods of interpretation. Drawing from a broad sweep of twentieth-century Jewish fiction, Wisse reintroduces us to the deeper side of much-beloved books that remain touchstones of Jewish identity. Through her eyes we reencounter old friends, including: Tevye the Dairyman from Sholem Aleichem''s landmark Yiddish stories, the character on whom Fiddler on the Roof is based Joseph K. of Kafka''s The Trial, who "without having done anything wrong" was famously "arrested one fine morning" Anne Frank, whose poignant diary has shaped the way we think about the Holocaust Nathan Zuckerman, the enigmatic narrator of numerous Philip Roth novels Destined to be a classic in its own right, one that reshapes the way we think about some of the classic works of the modern age, The Modern Jewish Canon is a book for every Jewish reader and for every reader of great fiction.

Scholar and critic Ruth R. Wisse warns that the failure of liberals to stand up for Jews facing resurgent antisemitism signals the collapse of liberal democratic values.“Ruth R. Wisse is a writer of passion and precision, who has extraordinary polemical powers. All these enviable qualities are beautifully engaged in If I Am Not for Myself, an immensely impressive book on a subject of universal importance.” —Joseph Epstein, author of Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life, and recipient of the National Humanities Award “You don’t have to be Jewish to be moved and instructed by this brilliant critique of liberalisms that do not reciprocate the devotions of their adherents. Ruth R. Wisse joins literary grace to analytical rigor in a book that should generate necessary debates for a long time to come.” —Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, founder of the Institute for Religion and Public Life and First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life “The Jews have enemies, as this book urges us to recognize in its passionately felt and powerfully reasoned argument. Ruth R. Wisse mounts a resolve defense of basic Jewish rights and offers a determined challenge to all who would deny them. Her analysis of the psychological and political sources of anti-Jewish hostility is as formidable as it is provocative and deserves the most serious reflection.” —Alvin H. Rosenfeld, professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, Indiana University “Wisse’s book is a timely and appropriate response to the ‘Woody Allen syndrome,’ typical of American Jews who charge Israel with betraying their own liberal legacy through its supposed suppression of Palestinian rights. What she charges in return is nothing less than the betrayal of the Jewish heritage itself by well-meaning, assimilated American Jews. Whether or not one agrees with all of her assertions, her book is mandatory reading for those who reject the platitudes of both Left and Right—which coincide in blaming Jews for the aggressions waged against them.” —Ronald Radosh, professor, and coauthor of The Rosenburg File: A Search for the Truth “This is a wonderful book, passionate, wise, and original. Wisse shows how liberalism has led the Jews into the worst betrayal of all—self-betrayal.” —Rael Jean Isaac, coauthor of The Coercive Utopians and Madness in the Streets