Ruth Wisse on Five Books Every Jew Should Read

During this year of lockdowns, shuttered businesses, and working from home, people have made time for many new habits and hobbies, from baking bread to reorganizing closets. In this podcast, Jewish literary and political scholar Ruth Wisse, one of our era’s great masters of Jewish letters, offers her own suggestion for how to spend at least some of that time: reading the greatest works of modern Jewish literature.

Those works to her are:

• Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (Sign up for Professor Wisse's free online course on the novel here.)
• Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem (Sign up for Professor Wisse's free online course on the stories here.)
• In the Heart of the Seas by S.Y. Agnon
• The Wall by John Hersey
• My War with Hersh Rasseyner by Chaim Grade

In this episode, Wisse explains what drew her to her choices and why, even with just a few months left in the year, we all ought to pick up one of these books and start reading.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

This podcast was recorded over Zoom as part of a virtual seminar series for Israel gap-year students on “The Jewish Political Condition.”