 |
|
 |
Ruth Wisse Urges Pro-Israel Activism
April 2, 2008Comments (1) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
Speaking to a packed audience at Hillel’s 2008 Summit on the University and the Jewish Community, Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse emphasized that the case for Israel must be made forthrightly on campus. (The complete video of her lecture is available on Hillel's Web site.)
Wisse, the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, was one of three prominent academics invited to present a “Last Lecture,” the presentation they would give if it were the final of their teaching career. The other Last Lecturers were Jenny Mandelbaum, associate professor of communications at Rutgers University, and Ralph Williams, professor of English language and literature at the University of Michigan. The “Last Lecture” tradition began at the University of Michigan under the auspices of Hillel.
Wisse described a world in which the liberal democracies of the West are under attack from Islam and in which “Jews are an early warning station” of imminent danger. She recalled an Iraqi Christian expression that “Sunday follows Saturday,” in other words that the West will be targeted after Israel.
The professor urged Israel’s defenders to loudly demand the Jewish state’s rights among nations. “Why should not American Jewish youth undertake basic training in the war of ideas…. The Arab world has kept us waiting like beggars for the diplomatic recognition and respect that has been our due for decades and who else but the students of Hillel should be claiming and winning for the Jews our equal rights,” she said.
Ultimately, she concluded, “history is going to ask us only one question, ‘Did you or did you not secure the Jewish homeland.'”
|
 |
|
 |