They Called Me Mayer July

Award for Mayer July Acoustiguide from American Association of Museums

We are thrilled that the audioguide for the exhibition They Called Me Mayer July: A Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust at The Jewish Museum (NYC) has just received an award from the American Association of Museums (AAM) for outstanding achievement in museum media and technology. 

You can hear parts of it here:
 http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/site/pages/mayer-july-onlinefeature.html

Bravo to The Jewish Museum!

Canadian premiere of Paint What You Can Remember, Tuesday April 20

Paint What You Remember Tuesday April 20 at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival! At noon, with Shawna Silver, Mayer's granddaughter presenting.
http://www.tjff.com/film-info.php?id=66&sortby=date&filterby=

Lives Lived: Mayer in the Globe and Mail

 Mayer Kirshenblatt was known as Mayer July, the hotheaded boy from Apt. His children called him Mayer Wildfire. While he spent most of his childhood in Polish public school and kheyder (Jewish school), he would rather watch the blacksmith at his anvil or the town kleptomaniac slip a live fish down her bosom. His real school was the town, which he would immortalize in words and images later in life.

Mayer’s father, Avner, left for Canada in 1928 for economic reasons. Mayer stayed in Poland with his mother, Rivka, and his three brothers. Hoping for work in a Toronto shoe factory, Mayer apprenticed with a shoemaker, but quit because all he did was carry the shoemaker’s baby around and empty the slop bucket. In 1934, Mayer finally arrived in Canada with his family and went to work in a sweatshop. After falling asleep at the sewing machine – he had stayed out late the night before – and running his finger under the needle, he turned to house painting. In the late 1940s, he opened his own wallpaper and paint store.