Ruth R. Wisse

Ruth R. Wisse is currently a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund and recipient of its Herzl Award. She was a professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard University from 1993–2014 and before that, helped found the Jewish Studies Department at McGill University. Her books include The Schlemiel as Modern Hero, The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Language and Culture, No Joke: Making Jewish Humor, Jews and Power, and Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation. In 2007, she was awarded the National Medal for the Humanities.