The Crisis in Jewish Education: Rising to the Challenge
An Evening with Drs. Ruth Wisse & Jonathan Silver
Thursday, September 4 at 7 PM ET
Toronto, Ontario (We will share the venue with registrants one week ahead of the event.)
Registration Required – click here to register
The Jewish way of life must be perpetuated through an education that starts at a young age and continues throughout a lifetime. For millennia, Jews have ceaselessly transmitted and reinforced the teachings of our sacred tradition. Yet today—as the “war against the Jews” reaches a fever pitch—many young people have abandoned, or even repudiated, their Jewish identity.
How did we arrive at this tragic juncture? Can the tide be reversed? The survival of the Jewish nation remains a historic marvel. Future generations of Jews must not be allowed to become alienated from our people and ill-equipped to confront the daunting challenges that lie ahead. We must ensure that they are proud inheritors of the nobility and heroism of Jewish civilization.
With the beginning of the new school year, Tikvah—one of the leading Jewish educational organizations and think tanks in North America— cordially invites you to join its senior fellows Professor Ruth Wisse and Dr. Jonathan Silver for a thought-provoking discussion on how to produce confident and morally courageous Jews in our turbulent times. Professor Wisse, who spent her formative years in Montreal, was a distinguished professor of Jewish literature at McGill and Harvard. Since retiring from academia, she continues to be a leading scholar of Jewish ideas in the public square. She is also a beloved teacher at Tikvah, and plays an integral role in its educational programs.
We hope you will join us for this stimulating evening and become part of Tikvah’s mission to refashion and to reinvigorate Jewish education.
An email with the exact event location will be sent one week prior.
This event is generously sponsored by Judy and Michael Kaiser.
About the Speakers
Professor Ruth Wisse is a Senior Fellow and Contributor at Tikvah and professor emerita of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard. Her books on literary subjects include A Little Love in Big Manhattan (1988), The Modern Jewish Canon (2003), an edition of Jacob Glatstein’s two-volume fictional memoir The Glatstein Chronicles (2010), and No Joke: Making Jewish Humor (2013). Her original translation of Chaim Grade’s My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner was published by Koren’s Maggid Press in 2022. She is also the author of two political studies, If I Am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews (1992) and Jews and Power (2007). Her memoir, Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation, was published in 2021.
Dr. Jonathan Silver is the Chief Programming Officer and Warren R. Stern Senior Fellow of Jewish Civilization at Tikvah. He also serves as Editor of Tikvah’s online magazine of ideas, Mosaic. As the host of the Tikvah Podcast, he has had conversations with hundreds of writers, rabbis, educators, military officers, artists, and political figures, including members of Israel’s Knesset, the U.S. Senate, and the prime minister of Israel.
About Tikvah
Tikvah’s mission is to educate exceptional young Jews and to bring the best Jewish and Zionist ideas to the world. Tikvah operates schools, intensive fellowships, summer institutes, and honors programs for students of all ages. We work closely with Jewish parents, educators, day schools, and colleges. We produce publications, podcasts, and online courses that bring Tikvah’s ideas to the world. Through the Tikvah Society and our many membership programs and gatherings, we are building a community of engaged Jews and public-spirited Americans committed to our shared calling.