Antisemitism and Academia: Professor Ruth Wisse Speaks with The Commentator
Ruth Wisse, professor emerita of Yiddish Literature at Harvard University, stands out as a preeminent scholar of antisemitism and the Jewish diaspora in the Jewish intellectual space. Throughout her career, she has published numerous works dealing with both Judaism and academia.
In the wake of Oct. 7 and the ensuing spike in antisemitism in the echelons of higher education, many at Yeshiva University and throughout the world have been asking questions about how this scourge can be combated and what the future may hold. Professor Wisse has written prolifically on these topics for years.
The Commentator had the privilege to sit down with Professor Wisse for a nearly hour-long interview, to discuss her experience in academia, her concerns for the Jewish present and her firm spirit of optimistic hope in the Jewish future. The conversation took the form of an informal give and take, with editors asking questions and chiming in with their own thoughts, rather than a prepared lecture; we simply tried our best to summarize the topics and problems addressed over the course of the discussion.
Growing up in Quebec and attending McGill University as a student of English Literature, Professor Wisse’s undergraduate institution offered surprisingly little academic Jewish studies, even Jewish literary and historical figures such as Franz Kafka were not discussed in their Jewish context. In her words, “the Rothschilds were there but their Jewishness was never mentioned.”
Surprisingly, her most “fundamental” experiences were working as a features editor for the student newspaper and studying comparative literature under Professor Louis Dudek.
Later, when the prominent poet Abraham Sustzkever suggested that she study Yiddish literature for graduate work she reacted with disbelief that Jewish literature could truly be an object of serious study “I laughed ... I said: ‘what would I do? Teach Shalom Aleichem?’
“I was stunned. How had I said this? Who was I? I had studied Shalom Aleichem in day school and then in afternoon school ... I knew that Shalom Aleichem was a great writer ... because my [higher] education had not included any mention of Jewishness, without even knowing it, I had not imagined the possibility of Yiddish literature, of my literature, of my culture being a part of the university.”
Professor Wisse would go on to not only study Yiddish literature but found a department devoted to the subject in her very own alma mater which had been lacking in Jewish studies during her time as a student. Ultimately, she would go on to teach Yiddish literature at Harvard University.
The state of academic Jewish studies has changed dramatically since those pioneering days of the discipline. When asked if the rising tides of antisemitism in the academy may be closing the path that she fought so hard to open; Professor Wisse pointed out that there is still much study of Jewish history and literature occurring in the universities: “The question is really how much of Jewish studies is now being taught as anti-Jewish studies.”
“Everybody wants to study about the Jews and Israel, right? Because they want to study about how bad it is,” focusing primarily on the faults.
Professor Wisse had begun her teaching at McGill at around the time of the foundation of the Association for Jewish Studies. “We all started on the same principle … our thought was that we were enhancing the university” by bringing to light the contributions that Jews had made to Western civilization, eliminating a gap that had previously existed in the curriculum.
“The evolution of Jewish studies has been one of the great, great disappointments.”
For Professor Wisse, Jewish studies evolved as they did only because the “universities evolved as they did.” She makes reference to the old Yiddish adage, “as the Gentiles go, so go the Jews,” attributing the decline of Jewish studies to the rising hegemony of leftist, antisemitic and “particularly anti-male” ideologies within the universities.
Can Jewish studies be reclaimed?
“All the questions you are going to put to me will have the same answer and that is ‘you,’” Professor Wisse says. “You are the answers to all the questions. What you will manage to do, you, your generation … people like yourselves who are at the heart of Jewish study, at the heart of the Jewish people and at the heart of concern for it … what you manage to do and the things you discover and find, and the things you think cannot be done, will give the answers to basically anything you can ask.”
Professor Wisse specifically called attention to many of the courses being offered at YU, including the course being taught by her son, Professor Jacob Wisse, on Bible and art history at Stern College for Women. Nevertheless, she thinks YU can do a better job in instilling the most important elements of modern Jewish education in its students, especially by placing a greater emphasis on the modern history of the Zionist movement and the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.
“Your education should understand that Jews are a sovereign people today, and you must learn the history of the [Second World] War, you must study comparative politics … that must be at the core of the best Jewish education.”
Antisemitism “has become the basis of international organizations like the UN and the ICC ... it is unbelievable what the organization of politics against the Jews has become. We call it antisemitism… nonsense! It is a huge political force, one of the largest political movements in history and very successful. Are you studying that? How many courses do you have devoted to comparative politics?”
Most importantly, Jews must stop being purely reactive to the rest of the world and take a more active role in their own destiny, “we can’t keep being the football of every horrible force in the world. It’s not a sustainable role for the Jews. Somehow or other, this is something we have to figure out.”
A theme in Professor Wisse’s writings is the phenomenon of Jews blaming themselves for persecution against them, most prominently exemplified today by many Jews who are part of the anti-Israel camp. In flipping the question, Wisse draws a distinction between an “accountable people” and a “self-accusatory people.”
“We are accountable people. We owe it in general to our sense of being human. This is the good part of it,” that we can learn from the past where we could have done better.
“The other part of it is that once you are living among people that are assaulting you all the time, and you have to really accommodate to them all the time because you are the minority by choice then the tendency may become to dislike in yourself what they tell you is wrong, based on their — mistaken — notions of what is right. When you answer to their judgements then the good in self-accountability becomes the evil gratuitous guilt. In my mind, there is nothing worse than gratuitous guilt … guilt that is unearned is a sickness.”
The worse antisemitism becomes, “that is to say the more organized politics becomes against the Jews — the more Jews will become defensive.”
We concluded the conversation by addressing the prospects for the Jewish future, with Professor Wisse encouraging students at YU to “go out beyond your university” to make connections with individuals who may not be knowledgeable about Judaism. “It's a very important thing,” she says. Rather than vainly attempting to persuade committed antisemites, the Jewish community should focus on fostering dialogue with people who may not know much about us. By reaching out to people who may be potential friends, the Jewish community can make allies and partnerships, and help to combat the spread of antisemitism.
“The evil out there is so awful that it's easy to be discouraged by it. Our main obligation, I think, is not to let the evil out there discourage us … how does one harden oneself against that and still remain good and happy and fulfilled and optimistic in the best sense of the word? … This is very difficult, intellectually and psychologically, but I think that’s our task.”
When asked what gives her hope, Professor Wisse says simply, “everything. Everything gives me hope. Look at you! I mean, why would one not be hopeful?”
Hannah Mamet, Rivka Krause and Rebecca Guzman contributed to this article.
Photo Caption: Professor Ruth Wisse addressing graduates at YU’s 2015 commencement
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University / Flickr
