Free as a Jew: A New Memoir by Ruth Wisse

In her new book, Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation, Harvard professor emerita Ruth R. Wisse reflects on her experience fleeing the Holocaust as a child, living through the birth of the State of Israel, and teaching Yiddish literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard University for more than 20 years. Wisse’s reminiscences include stories about growing up in the Jewish community of Montreal and vivid memories of meeting and interacting with great figures of the Yiddish cultural world such as Itzik Manger, Avrom Sutzkever, Chaim Grade, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Chava Rosenfarb, Rokhl Korn, Max and Uriel Weinreich, Lucy Dawidowicz, Irving Howe, and Mordecai Gebirtig. Join YIVO for a discussion of Wisse’s new book focusing on the Yiddish and literary side of Wisse’s fascinatory story. A special collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, this event will feature Wisse in conversation with author and founder of the Yiddish Book Center, Aaron Lansky. Co-sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center.