Wisse, Ruth R.

Overview

Works:	73 works in 275 publications in 6 languages and 13,074 library holdings
Genres:	Criticism, interpretation, etc Fiction Biography History Documentary films Nonfiction films Biographical films Poetry Historical fiction Fictional autobiographies
Roles:	Author, Editor, Honoree, Author of introduction, Other, Thesis advisor, Speaker, Contributor
Classifications:	PN6149.J4, 839.0933

Publication Timeline

Most widely held works about Ruth R Wisse

Mame-loshn at Harvard by Janet Tassel( Book )
Mame loshn at Harvard = Mame-loshn in Harṿard : Harvard professor Ruth Wisse conveys the joys of Yiddish and finds in its literature a provacative case for a strong Israel by Janet Tassel( )
Abraham Sutzkever : the uncrowned Jewish poet laureate ; a special weekend program with professor Ruth R. Wisse( Book )

Most widely held works by Ruth R Wisse

The best of Sholom Aleichem by Sholem Aleichem( Book )

18 editions published between 1979 and 1991 in English and held by 1,164 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

A superb collectiion of stories that rank with the best not only of folk literature, but of all literature

The schlemiel as modern hero by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

15 editions published between 1971 and 1980 in English and held by 1,058 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The modern Jewish canon : a journey through language and culture by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

17 editions published between 2000 and 2014 in English and Dutch and held by 706 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The author examines Jewish language and culture as seen through Jewish literature and looks at the characteristics which make a book "Jewish."

The Penguin book of modern Yiddish verse by Irving Howe( Book )

9 editions published between 1987 and 1988 in English and Yiddish and held by 649 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Jews and power by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

9 editions published between 2007 and 2013 in English and Russian and held by 568 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

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

An introduction to The shawl by Cynthia Ozick by Adam Kampe( Recording )

4 editions published between 2007 and 2008 in English and held by 557 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Discusses the theme and characters in Ozick's novel and includes excerpts from the book and background information on the author

The I.L. Peretz reader by Isaac Leib Peretz( Book )

16 editions published between 1990 and 2013 in English and held by 518 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Library of Yiddish Classics. Glossary

No joke : making Jewish humor by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

12 editions published between 2013 and 2015 in English and held by 487 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

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?

A shtetl and other Yiddish novellas by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

13 editions published between 1973 and 1986 in English and Undetermined and held by 347 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

If I am not for myself- : the liberal betrayal of the Jews by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

3 editions published in 1992 in English and held by 345 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

For over a century, Jews have been identified with liberalism. Not only have they been a driving force behind the spread of liberal politics; they have also been steadfastly loyal to a doctrine that promised them both safety and political acceptance. Recent evidence suggests that their commitment has not waned. But while Jews continue to stand up for other groups and "vote their conscience," contends Ruth Wisse, the liberal commitment to the Jews is not nearly so strong. Whenever Jews have been attacked - from the trial of Captain Dreyfus to the sustained military and political war against Israel - liberals have been slow to defend Jewish rights and have preferred instead to hold the Jews responsible for the persistence of their enemies. The explanation for this liberal default, Wisse argues, is the survival and success of anti-Semitism. This irrational idea continues to flourish throughout the world, despite the destruction of the fascist and communist regimes that were its deadliest twentieth-century allies. Wisse points out that anti-Semitism's astonishing resilience has put liberals - including liberal Jews - in an impossible position. The only reasonable response to such a doctrine, Wisse insists, is not appeasement or avoidance, but steadfast confrontation and rejection. Yet such opposition is alien to liberal ideas of open-mindedness and strikes many as intolerant. Unwilling to suspend their optimistic view of man as a benevolent and rational being in order to combat a mortal enemy, most liberals - including many Jews - conclude that Jews themselves must be responsible for the continuing wars against them - thus implicitly condoning their sacrifice. Wisse's book, inspired by a friend's emigration to Israel, traces the Jewish romance with liberalism from its discovery by Jewish integrationists and Zionists to the acceptance today by many Jews of a moral equivalence between Zionism and the war against it. She also explores, among the many contradictions of modern Jewish politics, the ambiguous question of Jewish "chosenness," and the Jewish longing for acceptance in a larger human family; the successful Arab war of ideas against Israel; and the dilemma of Jewish writers and intellectuals who wish to transcend their parochializing siege. Above all, she shows how and why anti-Semitism became the twentieth century's most successful ideology and reveals what people in liberal democracies would have to do to prevent it from once again achieving its goal

I.L. Peretz and the making of modern Jewish culture by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

13 editions published between 1991 and 2015 in English and held by 334 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

A little love in big Manhattan by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

14 editions published between 1987 and 1988 in 4 languages and held by 306 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Index

Sholem Aleichem : laughing in the darkness( Visual )

5 editions published between 2012 and 2013 in English and held by 229 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

A portrait of writer Sholem Aleichem, whose stories about Tevye the milkman became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Aleichem (1859-1916) was a rebellious wordsmith who created a new genre of literature and used his remarkable humor to encapsulate the realities of the Eastern European Jewish world in the late nineteenth century. Using a rich collection of archival footage, the film recreates a time in czarist Russia when Jews were second-class citizens and frequent scapegoats in times of social and political unrest

The Glatstein chronicles by Jacob Glatstein( Book )

14 editions published between 2010 and 2013 in English and Undetermined and held by 214 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In 1934, with World War II on the horizon, writer Jacob Glatstein (1896-1971) traveled from his home in America to his native Poland to visit his dying mother. One of the foremost Yiddish poets of the day, he used his journey as the basis for two highly autobiographical novellas (translated as The Glatstein Chronicles) in which he intertwines childhood memories with observations of growing anti-Semitism in Europe. Glatstein's accounts "stretch like a tightrope across a chasm," writes preeminent Yiddish scholar Ruth Wisse in the Introduction. In Book One, Homeward Bound, the narrator, Yash, rec

Arguing the modern Jewish canon : essays on literature and culture in honor of Ruth R. Wisse( Book )

7 editions published in 2008 in English and held by 209 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Ruth R. Wisse is a leading scholar of Yiddish and Jewish literary studies and one of our most fearless public intellectuals on issues relating to Jewish society and culture. In this celebratory volume, Wisse's colleagues pay tribute to her with a collection of critical essays whose subjects break new ground in Yiddish, Hebrew, Israeli, American, European, and Holocaust literature. Inspired by her award-winning book, The Modern Jewish Canon, Wisse's fellow scholars take up many questions raised by her definition of Jewish canonicity, while offering new readings of such disparate writers as George Eliot, Isaac Babel, J.D. Salinger, S.Y. Agnon, Philip Roth, and many others

Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer( Book )

4 editions published between 1996 and 2005 in English and held by 174 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Religious hysteria and violence break out in seventeenth century Poland when members of the sect of Sabbatai Zevi come to town

The poetry of Abraham Sutzkever : the Vilno poet, reading in Yiddish by Abraham Sutzkever( )

4 editions published between 1960 and 2001 in Yiddish and held by 109 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Burnt pearls : ghetto poems of Abraham Sutzkever by Abraham Sutzkever( Book )

7 editions published in 1981 in English and held by 104 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Sholem Aleichem and the art of communication by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

7 editions published between 1979 and 1980 in English and held by 97 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Some serious thoughts about Jewish humor by Ruth R Wisse( Book )

4 editions published in 2001 in English and held by 38 WorldCat member libraries worldwide