Frieda Vizel - Hasidic Brooklyn and Beyond

Frieda Vizel - Hasidic Brooklyn and Beyond

Welcome to in-depth conversations on Hasidism, Judaism, NYC, culture, education, religion and more! This podcast is hosted by popular Youtuber Frieda Vizel, who has been studying the Hasidic community for more than ten years. This is the podcast version of the video conversations which are also published on Youtube. Please reach out with feedback. Here's the youtube channel if you prefer to see the host and guests! :)

Episodes

May 18, 2025 78 mins
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/NXpO0THnx3g

A woman who believes that Jews are prohibited by the Torah to fight, to have an army and nation, shares her theology.

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Since I did my first video with Pearl nearly three years ago, my friendship with her has deepened and become richer. Still, we have always had deep ideological differences. I am no longer Hasidic and I reject some of the beliefs of my upbringing. Pearl is...
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Video format of this interview: https://youtu.be/lzVUnyxpcEE

The most beautiful media content created about the Hasidic community is, arguably, the Israeli hit TV show Shtisel. It was co-created by Yehonatan Indursky, who grew up Haredi in Jerusalem, left the community, and is now in some sort of place of return. He calls it "living on the border," the most interesting place to be. You might have read about him in a profile in The N...
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Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/teadpfXWCO4

Martha Ross grew up Old Order Amish in Middlefield Ohio, left it, and now does YouTube videos about it on the channel  @AmishTransformed  . Please check out her fundraiser for her husband's much needed dental work here: https://gofund.me/d49b3276
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Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/MnFddZtaWdQ
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This is the song to advertise the Tzohar organization, which I have referenced in the episode comparing the Netflix Unorthodox show to this song. Here is the video: https://youtu.be/78XBSSDdwjo?si=aXMAEQ4pOPnYhbwZ
I am sharing the music since it's essentially and ad and it will help create a fuller resource/reference to my commentary
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Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/78XBSSDdwjo

The stories we tell affect the ways we process events around us. How we make sense of things like someone's departure from a community. Every society has their own stories; their own mythologies, their own tropes.

In this video, I do an analysis of two different societies and their tropes, by comparing the Netflix show Unorthodox with the music video "Mein Kind, Eiku". Pleas...
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Video link: https://youtu.be/28lP8j8swA0

Please support Rochel Yenty Bodek's wonderful work by donating: https://insightbeyondeyesight.org/donate Rochel Yenty Bodek is a Hasidic woman who lost her sight as a young woman due to a genetic condition. She has faced tremendous challenges as a wife and mother in the Hasidic community and has risen to the challenge with tremendous resilience. In this interview she talks with a lot of cando...
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March 16, 2025 80 mins
Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/hKN0_75EuqE

Anna Shternshis is a Professor of Yiddish studies and the director of the department of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of "Soviet and Kosher", "When Sonia Met Boris" and the forthcoming "Jews in the soviet union: post war life, hopes and fears". In this interview we talk about the fascinating history of the Jews of the Soviet Union, the...
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Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/pVfY5wZlPec

There's a whole emerging world of Hasidic theater, acted by men, and including a cast and stories of men only. This has been a tiny element of the Hasidic world for years - it definitely wasn't a viable career for anyone until recently. In recent years, the Hasidic theater scene has exploded. So much talent is coming to the fore. It was so much my pleasure to talk to Ari (Arye...
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Video version of this interview here: https://youtu.be/kMxyRkjljm8?si=hcjjD0_-izvquKxB

Today's interview is about psychedelics, Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and one extraordinary woman's journey! Please join me for the interview with Bruchy Moskovics. Bruchy was raised in the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel. Her story is like no one's I've ever heard, and the way she tells it will take you to another world -- a world of faith, thoughtfuln...
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Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/ctuFi83643E


Antonia Lassar is a Jewish comedian who grew up with very little Judaism. She later became interested in various forms of religion, going on a seeker's journey for community with soulful musical connection. She loves singing and is a professional comedian. Our journeys couldn't be more different, yet we have so much in common in our appreciation of religious Judaism that doe...
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Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/blLciT0egb4

Jessica Roda just published the book "For Women and Girls Only" on Orthodox Jewish women's performances. You can find her book here: https://amzn.to/4jKRJgj

In this long form discussion we talk about what's happening in the scene of Orthodox Jewish women's performances. Because of modesty rules, women are not allowed to perform in front of men. So oftentimes their reach is...
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Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/HoTzWaF7dU8

So many stories about the Hasidic Jews of the village of Kiryas Joel come from people who have left it. Or, often it will come from village official PR people who tell a very rosy story. In this interview, we get an exclusive peak into an everyday woman walking an exceptional line; risking everything in her community to express her voice. Fradel's story is compelling, fas...
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Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/dlp7-4Aq1tM

Modi Rosenfeld is a brilliant and wonderful Jewish comedian whose work I've long been a huge fan of. He is able to talk to any audience, a skill that few have. It's incredible to me that his audience spans from the very secular to the very religious, including Hasidic Jews, which is part of his bit. In my latest interview I talk to Modi for a bit of a behind the scenes di...
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Video link: https://youtu.be/J1XGAMK4wng

Happy Chanukah! This Chanukah I want to share some of my childhood memories by reading to you an unpublished essay about my childhood memories of Chanukah in the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel. Wishing all who celebrate the holidays very happy holidays!
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Video version of this posting: https://youtu.be/Gk917OpgS_Q

It is the tradition that before a Hasidic young man gets married, he attends a private session with an older rabbi who guides him in matters of sex and intimacy. Since sex is not a topic openly discussed in this society as it is considered immodest, this one lesson is potentially the first time the young groom learns about sex and the opposite gender. That one lesson could ...
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Video version here: https://youtu.be/AUdw8W71Gv8

*Sensitive content warning. This conversation contains adult themes.*

Peggy Greenfield is a certified relationship and intimacy coach who grew up in the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, and now serves this population. Peggy is not in the community herself anymore, which gives her a unique vantage point from which to tackle challenges of sex and imtimacy, topics that are diffic...
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Video link: https://youtu.be/Ovl9HbcTuUI

This is a discussion about the documentary 'City of Joel', with the filmmaker Jesse Sweet. It's a documentary about a turf war in the insular Hasidic Village of Kiryas Joel. Kiryas Joel is a Satmar village in Orange County New York, and it's where I lived for the first twenty-five years of my life. The documentary includes amazing footage of the village I grew up in, with shots of several ver...
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Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/vbwZcttuNOQ

Miriam Anzovin is a Jewish content creator who does videos about the Talmud, Jewish lore reactions and even holiday themed makeup tutorials. She is a warm, funny and witty Jewish woman and I find a friend in her in the content creation journey. Join me for a discussion with the wonderful Miriam about her background, about her relationship to her orthodox mother, about her...
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Video version of this interview here: https://youtu.be/5-RsTIrIbmo

Lea Kalisch has a dream to sing at the Superbowl, in Yiddish, with a shtreimel. She is a singer of many genres, but some of her Yiddish songs reflect a longing for a simple, religious world. "I am a shtetel Neshama (soul), a Jew from yesterday. I should have been a fruma, my hashtag is 'oyvey'." We hear so many stories of people from the religious community longing f...
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