The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

"Yiddish Literature was funded on the proceeds of the sales of Cowboy hats"

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Michael Wex talks about how relatives of Yiddish Poet, Esther Shumiatcher, funded Yiddish Literature by the sale of cowboy hats. The true cowboy hats, Smith Built not Stetsons.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Michael Wex.

This excerpt is in English.

Michael Wex was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 1954.

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This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

A Short History of Lethbridge Jewish Community

2 min 9 sec

The Roots of "Born to Kvetch"

2 min 51 sec

A Polish-Canadian

1 min 24 sec

Reflections on the Widespread Knowledge of Yiddish Words Despite Jewish Assimilation

1 min 20 sec

A Religious Childhood

1 min 36 sec

First Time at KlezKamp

2 min 21 sec

Scholars, Rebbes and Frank Sinatra

1 min 18 sec

The Problem of Assimilated Jews

1 min 15 sec

"I went to school in the eleventh century it's just nobody bothered to tell me"

1 min 23 sec

Deciding on Graduate School

2 min 7 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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