Author Michael Wex Analyzes Yiddish Curses and Jokes

Michael Wex is a Canadian novelist, playwright, translator, lecturer, performer, and author of books on language and literature.His specialty is Yiddish and his book Born to Kvetch was a surprise bestseller in 2005.

He recently participated in a series of lectures sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The series, The History of Jews and Comedy in America, included a session on Yiddish Curses and Jokes, which is one of his favorite topics.

In this excerpt, Wex explains the origins and context of some of the more popular Yiddish curses.

Enjoy !

Comedy Showcase: Classic Courtroom Jokes in Translation from Yiddish by Comedian Emil Cohen

Emil Cohen (1911-2000) was an American comedian, humorist and entertainer. He was billed as "America's Foremost American Jewish Humorist". He frequently performed at the Grossinger Hotel in Liberty, New York, in the so-called "Borscht Belt". Cohen's Yiddish humor was well received by the predominantly Jewish audiences in this area.

Cohen developed a unique style of humor in which he delivered jokes and stories with a punch line in Yiddish followed immediately by an English translation. His smooth delivery ensured that audience members who only understood English could still appreciate the joke in its authentic style. Cohen was known for his double-entendre Yiddish-English humor, particularly his translation of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address into Yiddish. His humor was inspired by the lives of the Jews of Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Cohen worked to preserve the heritage of Yiddish humor. 

In this courtroom scene, Cohen describes the funny results of a Yiddish to English interpreter translating the answers of an elderly Yiddish speaker to a judge's questions in English about the man's age and why he stole a chicken. The inflection  of the Yiddish answers and English translations are hilarious. 

Enjoy!

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