In her new book, Jews and Power, Ruth Wisse explores the Jewish relationship to power from King David to the Oslo Accords to more recent confrontations between Israel and the Arab world. Wisse looks at how Jews have often tried to make a virtue out of powerlessness, while their enemies have exaggerated and demonized Jewish power. Both a sweeping narrative and a trenchent analysis, Wisse’s book addresses some of the central moral and political questions of our day.

Ruth Wisse is the Martin Peretz professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard.  Author of numerous books, including If I am Not For Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews and The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Language and Culture, she has also edited several anthologies of Yiddish poetry and prose.  Jews and Power, to be published in August 2007, is the eighth book in the Nextbook/Schocken Jewish Encounters series.

Recorded Monday, October 08, 2007 at The Woman’s Club of Evanston.