THE MAINE YIDDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL
Hosted by the JCA, 1342 Congress Street, Portland
Author, columnist, bon vivant and raconteur, Michael Wex has been called “a Yiddish national treasure;” Born to Kvetch, the bestselling book ever written about Yiddish, was hailed by The New York Times as “wise, witty and altogether wonderful.”
A native of Alberta, Canada Wex has worked in virtually every area of contemporary Yiddish. Books in addition to Kvetch include Just Say Nu, How to Be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck) and Rhapsody in Schmaltz. Some of his songs have been recorded by such klezmer bands as Sukke, The Flying Bulgars, and 2007 Grammy winners, The Klezmatics.
Michael Wex’s Yiddish translation has been called “the finest around”, and he’s got the résumé to prove it. From Mendele Moykher Sforim’s The Wishing Ring to Sholem Aleykhem (Classic Yiddish Stories), testimony for projected war crimes trials and countless family documents, letters, and unpublished autobiographies, there’s virtually no area of the language in which he isn’t experienced. Wex is also an accomplished translator into Yiddish. He has done the only such translation of The Threepenny Opera authorized by the authors’ estates.
“Wex is a rare combination of Jewish comic and scholarly cultural analyst.” Jewish Forward
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine
