Ruth Wisse, Yiddish literature professor emerita at Harvard University and a distinguished senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund, cautioned against the rise of “adversarial ideas,” stating that American democracy “needs reinforcing” in her National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Jefferson Lecture on Wednesday.
“What are we doing to reinforce the most successful government system ever crafted by so few for so many?” Wisse asked, speaking at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“Let’s remember that our republic depends, for its perpetuation, on teachers who instill its God-inspired history and tenets diligently, patiently and persuasively enough,” Wisse said.
“The absence of insistent creative intellectual formation, particularly in the humanities, does not just leave a vacuum,” she said. “It gets filled by adversarial ideas. Marx for Madison. Lenin for Lincoln. And lately, the Islamist incursion for the American Revolution.”
Comparing Israel and Jewish history to America, Wisse said service in the Israel Defense Forces unifies Israelis across the political spectrum, contributing to the country’s “moral confidence.”
“You can see where I’m headed with this,” she said. “Had America not decisively intervened to defeat Germany and Japan, the Jews could not have recovered sovereignty in Israel when and how they did. But one cannot now expect that small country to return the favor by serving as the fighting force of America and the West.”
“Soldiering is the mainstay of any society that intends to protect its members,” Wisse said, noting the lessons learned from the U.S. about protecting freedom “needs reinforcing.”
“This is our country, sweet land of liberty, and of thee we do not sing enough,” she said.
