Michael Wex
By Michael Wex
-
Books Old and Grey and Only in the Way
Earlier this week, Michael Wex, author of “The Frumkiss Family Business,” wrote about writing about intermarriage and being the kvetch guy. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: I…
-
Books Being the ‘Kvetch’ Guy
On Monday, Michael Wex wrote about the birth of his idea for his new novel “The Frumkiss Family Business.” His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: It’s nothing to…
-
Books Birth of a Family Business
Michael Wex is the author of “Born to Kvetch,” and the new novel “The Frumkiss Family Business.” His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: A couple of years ago,…
-
Culture Et Tu, Brute?
At least once a month, someone, usually a business acquaintance who doesn’t know much about my private life, will ask what my 14-year-old daughter is up to at her Hebrew day school, and then go on to let me know in no uncertain terms that I am a traitor to every aspect of the Yiddish…
-
Culture To Bug and Be Bugged
Annoyance and botheration are never as well expressed as in Yiddish. Here are a few useful idioms. HAK MEER NISHT KA’ TSHAYnik Don’t knock me a tea kettle [i.e., stop rattling on like a kettle that’s boiling dry]. VOOS DRIKstee MEER A KRIZH FIN DAIM? Why are you pressing me in the small of the…
-
Culture Just Say ‘Nu?’: Manners Maketh the Mensch
Our previous installment looked at how Yiddish will often use the third person as a sign of respect. Day-to-day use of the third person in addressing male strangers is pretty much restricted to der yeed, “the Jew,” which is sometimes used instead of reb yeed, “Mister Jew,” in addressing strangers. IKH MIZ BAITN BEI DAIM…
-
Culture Just Say ‘Nu?’: I Remember Mameleh
It all starts with TAteh MAmeh Dad pa Mom ma If the tateh and mameh are yours, and you’re a kid, they’re usually TAteshee/TAtesheh Daddy MAmeshee/MAmesheh Mommy If you’re using any of these as titles in direct address, you use them exactly as they appear above: TAteshee, TAtesheh, LOZ MIKH NISHT aLAYN Daddy, daddy, don’t…
-
Culture Just Say ‘Nu?’: Bottoms Up!
FOOD AND DRINK, PART 4 Alcohol It’s a case of life imitating rhetoric. The original meaning of the phrase “Jews don’t drink” was not that Jews abstain. It didn’t even mean that Jews don’t get drunk. It meant that Jews don’t stay drunk: they don’t drink to the exclusion of all else, and such drinking…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV So, what’s the deal with the honey scene in ‘Marty Supreme?’
- 2
Fast Forward A whites-only, no-Jews community says it’s found a legal loophole. A Jewish lawmaker in Pennsylvania wants to close it.
- 3
Israel News Somaliland already operates as a de facto state. So why is Israel’s recognition of it so controversial?
- 4
Fast Forward Mamdani’s first act: revoking Eric Adams’ executive orders, including on Israel, antisemitism and BDS
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Michele Weiss and Justin Brasch mark milestones as first Orthodox Jewish mayors in their cities
-
Culture Irving Berlin’s 1926 interfaith marriage sparked a Jewish debate that, 100 years later, hasn’t gone away
-
Fast Forward Judge lets California antisemitism law take effect, rejecting teachers’ censorship claims
-
Film & TV What’s funny about living next to a Nazi?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
