Michael Wex

Website: www.the-yiddish-world-of-michael-wex.com
Residence : Toronto, ON

Biographical information

Writer and raconteur, bon vivant and itinerant teacher of Yiddish, Michael Wex has been called "a Yiddish national treasure", Born to Kvetch, his book about Yiddish, was hailed by The New York Times as "wise, witty and altogether wonderful."

The last brittle sprout of a rabbinic family-tree, Wex is the sole descendant of the Rebbes of Ciechanow and Strykow to have been born in Lethbridge, Alberta. Although he has taught at both the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan, Wex attained the summit of his academic career as a fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto; loosely speaking, he was Robertson Davies' roommate. At the same time, he was a frequent guest in the house of the late Stretiner Rebbe, Rabbi Isaac Langner.

Wex's activities extend into virtually every area of contemporary Yiddish. He has lectured and performed in venues ranging from Borscht Belt hotels to recreation centres in what was once East Germany. Some of his Yiddish songs have been recorded by such klezmer bands as The Klezmatics, Sukke, and The Flying Bulgars. Wex has translated extensively from Yiddish to English, while his authorized Yiddish translation of Weill and Brecht's Threepenny Opera premiered in June, 2001.

Wex 's teaching and lectures --a unique combination of learning, stand-up comedy and probing investigation into the nature of Yiddish and Yiddishkayt--have taken him from Toronto to Budapest, and to many points in between. The approach is so unique and appealing that his annual series of classes on Yiddish at Klezkamp has been renamed Wexology--and not at Wex's instigation. The only complaint ever heard is that people are enjoying themselves so much that they forget to take notes.

Discussion topics

• Kvetch Que C’Est? Origins of Yiddish.
  A look at why the Jews of medieval Germany needed a language of their own, how they put one together and the ingredients that went into this peculiar linguistic stew. Yiddish starts out as a German for blasphemers, a German in which you could deny Christ without getting yourself killed any more often than necessary. It was intended as a German that Germans wouldn’t understand.
• Don’t Knock Me A Teapot: Strange Yiddish Expressions and How They Got That Way.
  We’ll look at three basic sources of Yiddish idioms—natural phenomena, the basic meanings of words, and religious life—and see how they influence daily thought and speech. Along with the title phrase, we’ll also look at such idioms as “six feet under, baking bagels” and “doctors should have need of you,” among others.
• Pigs, Poultry and Pampers: The Religious Roots of Yiddish.
  The influence of religious practices and rituals on Yiddish self-expression. Why the proper Yiddish translation of “I’ve got a crush on you, sweetie pie,” has a literal meaning of “I’d like you to pick me up, wave me around your head three times like a chicken and then throw me away.”

These are only a few examples. The whole of Born to Kvetch originated in lectures, and he has at least one lecture per chapter.

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