LEVY FORUM for Open Discourse

One of the most important pioneering scholars of Jewish Studies in our times, Dr. Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Emerita at Harvard University as well as distinguished senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund. Her work bridges the worlds of Yiddish and American culture, of literature and politics, and of Israel and the Diaspora. She began teaching Yiddish Literature at McGill University in 1968, helping to found its pioneering Jewish studies department. In 1993, she moved to Harvard University, where she taught until her retirement in 2014. 

Monsieur Lévy is a French philosopher, novelist, filmmaker, playwright, and humanitarian. For 50 years, he has covered the world’s “forgotten wars,” both independently and on behalf of the French government. He is the creator of many renowned documentaries, including three films on the war in Ukraine: Why Ukraine, Slava Ukraini, and Glory to the Heroes. In the last year, he has rallied the West to support Israel’s struggle against terrorism. 

Mr. Sharansky is a human rights activist, a former refusenik and for nine years a Soviet Prisoner of Zion, and was a key leader in the fight for the right of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. He currently serves as the chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy. In recognition of his work for the Jewish People, he has been awarded the Israel Prize, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Genesis Prize. 

One of our nation’s leading historians, Professor Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; the Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Visiting Fellow in History at Hillsdale College; and the Inaugural Terry Giles and Kalli O’Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. He has written or edited 24 books and is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials concerning Greek civilization military history, as well as contemporary culture and politics.

Ambassador Bolton served as assistant to the president and national security advisor under President Donald Trump from 2018 to 2019. He was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 and served in high-level positions in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. His incisive commentary on world affairs and America’s role has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other major newspapers. 

Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at the Hudson Institute, the “Global View” columnist at the Wall Street Journal, and the senior scholar in the Center for Civic Engagement and Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. His many award-winning books include The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, which examines the origins of American support for Israel.