Marilla

Santa’s message

Last year we bought a four-foot tall animatronic Santa Claus. If you talk into the microphone that comes in the box you can make Santa talk. It was just too tempting to make him an old Jewish man. So here's Santa's message. Just for... Read more here

Wex

Can’t keep from kvetchin’

This is the second of five guest blog posts I wrote for Powell's Books. I'm working desperately to finish a book manuscript in the next four to six weeks, so accounts of my day-to-day adventures in the world at large, not to mention life in the fast-paced Yiddish lane — where Polident seems to be replacing KY as the gel of choice — don't tend to feature much in the way of incident. Today, for instance,... Read more here

Wex

The season of the drunk

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, there’s no doubt that we’re well embarked on what my parents used to call shikker-tsayt, “season of the drunk,” a temporally fluid festive period observed by selected members of the dominant European and North American faith community. According to the Shulkhan Arukh ha-Mom, the strictly oral code of Jewish law composed by my mother and revealed only to members of... Read more here

Wex

Matzohs with the Fuehrer

This is the first of five guest blog posts I wrote for Powell's Books. It's been quite a while since I attended shul — synagogue — with any regularity. Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, holidays that feature memorial prayers, and the anniversaries of my parents' deaths are about the only time you'll find me there these days, other than for weddings, bar mitzvahs and similar celebrations. And work — let's... Read more here

Marilla

Jewish Book Council author questionnaire

Below you will find Michael Wex's author questionnaire he completed for the Jewish Book Council. What’s your favorite quotation? “Are you coming out of that bathroom sometime today?” (My father) What’s the best single piece of advice about writing that you’ve ever gotten? Get a big wastebasket and don’t be afraid to use it (I read this in an interview with Isaac Bashevis Singer). What would you... Read more here

Wex

Wex is no Beau Brummell

Anyone who knows me can tell you, “That Wex is a nice guy, but he’s certainly no Beau Brummell.” Having grown up in the 60’s, when middle-class Jewish boys were dying to look like sharecroppers, I’ve remained opgerisn un opgeshlisn, “ragged and tattered,” ever since, much to the chagrin of my daughter and wife. I still own––forget own, I still wear the shirt in which I saw Jimi... Read more here

Marilla

Michael Wex’s attack on Wagner

The following is an article Wex published in the Canadian Theatre Review, no. 103, Summer 2000 as an introduction to his play I Just Wanna Jewify: The Yiddish Revenge on Wagner, which premiered at Harbourfront Theatre, Toronto, in 1999. It´s hard to Be a Jew: Culture Clash I In the winter of 1998, I received an e-mail from Heiko Lehmann, the Berlin half of Golus Storytheatre Toronto-Berlin, in which he... Read more here