Prof. Ruth Wisse

Ruth R. Wisse is a Canadian-American academic and political activist, and the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature emerita at Harvard University. Born in Czernowitz, Romania, in 1936, she grew up in Montreal and earned her PhD from McGill University. She is considered a pioneering scholar in Jewish studies and Yiddish literature, and has written and edited numerous books, including The Schlemiel as a Modern Hero, The Modern Jewish Canon, and Jews and Power. In 2007, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal.