By Gavi Tropper, Features Editor
Internationally acclaimed journalist and author Douglas Murray will be joining Yeshiva University this semester as a guest lecturer at Yeshiva College. He is YU’s first ever “Professor of Practice,” a new position that “recognizes leaders who have shaped public discourse and invites them to contribute that perspective to university life,” a recent YU News article explained.
Murray has long been an outspoken figure in conservative politics. He first gained prominence in his native Britain a decade ago for his fierce opposition to large-scale Muslim immigration. More recently, Hamas’ brutal October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has become his center of focus. A staunch supporter of Israel, he travelled on the ground in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon researching and reporting on the events of the war.
In his most recent book, On Democracy and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization, Murray argues that by fighting Hamas, Israel is not merely ensuring its own national security. Rather, he says that Israel serves as the most active front of a broader war between Western civilization and Islamist ideology.
In his position at YU, Murray will deliver guest lectures three times this semester as part of the Yeshiva College honors class “The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives.” Taught by Dr. Shaina Trapedo, the director of both the Yeshiva College and Stern College honors program, the class explores the power of poetry as both an expression of beauty as well as a means of conveying spiritual and moral values.
Although his career is built around reporting on global events, Murray has a lesser known passion for poetry. In his youth, he attended Eton College, where classical literature is a centerpiece of the curriculum. He has long advocated not only for the study of poetry, but the return of poetry memorization to the mainstream — or in Murray’s words, “the necessity of keeping the best stuff up there.” From February 2023 through February 2024, Murray wrote a weekly column for The Free Press called “Things Worth Remembering,” in which he discussed one of the hundreds of poems he has committed to memory and explored its continuing relevance. The column later expanded to include other topics such as speeches, but for a full year it focused solely on poetry.
Murray has argued that poetry, especially when memorized, is a powerful means of understanding one’s self and their place in this world. Murray wrote, “While on the frontlines of the Ukraine conflict recently, I became aware that while unable to read in my spare moments, I would look out of the window and run over in my head the passages that I felt I needed the most.”
In the wake of Oct. 7, Murray reflected on the particular role of literature in comprehending tragedy. “One of the purposes of great literature, and the need to carry it around with us, is to make sense of the world as it happens,” he wrote. “Terrible events occur, but if we have the wisdom of the ages in our heads, we can put them into some form of context.”
Murray argues that memorization is also a crucial tool for protecting societal values. “[W]hat you have up here, in your head, the bastards cannot take,” Murray wrote. “So long as we carry what we have up here—so long as we furnish our heads with the important things—nothing important can truly die.”
Having previously collaborated with Murray for events with YU, Dr. Stu Halpern, Deputy Director of YU’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, got the idea of bringing in Murray as a guest lecturer in the “Values of Verse” class, leading Dr. Trapedo to contact him.
“I believe your perspective on cultural memory, the importance of literary tradition, and poetry’s role in sustaining democratic values would provide our students with profound insights,” Dr. Trapedo wrote to Murray in an email shown to the YU Observer.
Murray’s role in the class was not known to all students who initially registered. “I didn’t know until Dr. Trapedo told us on the first day, but I was pretty excited, and I’m very much looking forward.” Azriel Moskowitz (YC ‘29) told the YU Observer. “I’ve seen [him] all over Youtube, all over my feed, just saying very wise and articulate things that really pierce the state of our world in a way that’s cunning and revolutionary.”
Even though Murray is better known for his journalism, Moskowitz is enthusiastic about the opportunity to study poetry with him. “I believe that most of his thought processes and values and foundations about poetry must also pervade his thought processes about politics,” Moskowitz said.
Daniel Nelson (YC ‘28) is also excited by the prospect of Murray teaching at YU, having first seen him on a British game show. “I first heard about him a few years ago, he came up on Question Time in England, and I realized at that moment he was my GOAT [Greatest Of All Time].”
He did think poetry was an odd choice to have Murray teach. “I think that’s good, but then it begs the question why have Douglas Murray teach poetry, because it’s not really what he’s known for,” he said. “It would be cool if he was teaching a poli sci course, but I’m sure he might touch on politics and get asked questions.”
Nelson would appreciate the opportunity for Murray to interact with students outside of class as well. “It would be nice if he does a tisch [communal gathering] where people can gather around, and have a Q and A with YU students,” he said. “If he could do that on top of [the] poetry class, that would be really cool.”
Photo Caption: Douglas Murray and Yeshiva University President Ari Berman
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University