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Jan
26
Wex

The dover akher…

The dover akher… I’ve been asked to explain the term dover akher, "something else," "another thing," something that you don't want to mention. It comes from the Hebrew. Dover means "thing"; akher means "other"; the two together were used as a means of getting from one interpretation to the next in rabbinic literature, where akher on its own was sometimes used to mean "that person or thing that I prefer not to mention" or...
Jan
21
Wex

Why send your kid to Hebrew school?

Why send your kid to Hebrew school? Sabina Wex graduates from middle school 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 language and culture from which I make most of my living, from the fondly...
Jan
20
Wex

South African Jews in Yiddish

After a lecture I recently delivered about the importance of a familiarity with traditional Jewish texts and religious practices to a proper understanding of Yiddish, I was beset by a number of doubters. Noticing that one of my interlocutors had a South African accent, I asked her if she was familiar with the term khateysim. “Of course,” she replied, but couldn’t tell me where the term comes...
Jan
18
Wex

Yiddish exhaustion….

Yiddish exhaustion…. I finished my new novel "The Frumkiss Family Business" (due for release in Canada at the end of September) a couple of weeks ago and am laying low until it's time to start editing..... You call this a vacation? I’m so tired that I don’t even know how to describe myself. Am I oysgemutshet un oysgematert, “run down and weary, exhausted and exhausted?” Don’t ask me. Mutshet comes from Yiddish’s...
Jan
15
Wex

Spit three times when you win an award

Spit three times when you win an award The audio version of my book, Just Say Nu, recently won an award and I found myself confronted with the same problem that I had to face after Born to Kvetch won something: How could I let people know? How was I to say something nice about myself without calling down an evil eye and very likely destroying the very good fortune that I wanted to talk about? How are you supposed to spit three times at the end...
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