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! :)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.
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Sep 28, 2026 · 1:05:52
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/guXQwZ9h_5U Dr Archelle from the podcast "Speak Up for Your Health" interviews youtuber Frieda Vizel about her experience growing…
Sep 20, 2026 · 26:56
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/LK2b0mAYKqA I'm tired of big youtubers conflating all Hasidic groups as one. They are so different. The community in Crown Heights is…
Sep 6, 2026 · 1:13:48
video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/NtFI3NL4dFE?si=zOhqSNq6aijFxcc4 In September 2026, the Satmar community experienced a major historic event. After decades of the…
Sep 2, 2026 · 16:47
Video link to this podcast: https://youtu.be/_UjXlnOVdug In September 2026, news broke that Hasidic Rabbis will meet with president Trump. This was revealed when the Satmar Rabbi…
Aug 30, 2026 · 39:46
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/Yy4Tzw-UAUc Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Aug 23, 2026 · 34:05
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/vEkKjydfG3g The Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel is an unusual community in the state of New York. It's all Hasidic, very insular. It…
Aug 16, 2026 · 37:41
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/vUhamjWR_vA In this video, I provide a translation and analysis of a powerful Yiddish speech by the Grand Rabbi of the Satmar Hasidic…
Aug 9, 2026 · 54:28
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/mW6PTwWUVAU Melissa Weisz grew up in Hasidic, Yiddish-speaking Boro Park and left the fold well before the OTD phenomenon became…
Aug 2, 2026 · 33:00
Video link: https://youtu.be/xBBW-b4yNfw Gita got married, like many Hasidic Williamsburg girls did. In an arranged match, when she was not yet twenty. Her marriage lasted until…
Jul 26, 2026 · 41:27
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/LV99eySK-24 Fifteen years after their marriage was arranged, a couple reflects on their lives together. They met once for forty…
Jul 19, 2026 · 51:10
Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/7CBHWJwmAJI Many people know Pessy from her popular Yiddish comedy videos, where she lovingly and hilariously captures…
Jul 12, 2026 · 52:16
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/ixZOxV5BuCI Eddy Portnoy is back by popular demand, after our wonderful discussion on the history of Yiddish language. Eddy is the…
Jul 8, 2026 · 15:00
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/KCS9vAundms How do you tell the history of Jews in Poland? Why is there so much debate about this from Polish people? I ask the…
Jul 5, 2026 · 54:22
Video link: https://youtu.be/qdQi26lBQ7Q Today I have the great honor and pleasure of speaking with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a renowned scholar of Jewish culture, folklore,…
Jun 28, 2026 · 1:12:48
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/gwCyNjr2vU0 Today I am talking to Doran from the channel @TheEasyWayDMS about philosophical subjects. What is antisemitism? How does…
Jun 21, 2026 · 1:13:17
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/uQ8YqHA_id8 📸 Videography: Upperdeck Film / https://www.instagram.com/upperdeck_film/ ✂️ Edited: Lee Kupac / @mayo.nap 👰…
Jun 17, 2026 · 43:02
Video link to this monologue: https://youtu.be/A1aOTCsYQfM Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Jun 14, 2026 · 14:40
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/92Q4LAxh_Ug A year ago, Pearl sparked one of the most heated discussions on this channel. As a Satmar Hasidic woman, she shared…
Jun 7, 2026 · 1:14:15
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/aeVekOqP7-Y The tables have turned! The wonderful, renowned Orthodox Jewish podcaster Dovid Bashevkin, host of 18forty,…
May 31, 2026 · 1:41:58
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/fV8LeAiQQe8 Join us for an insightful conversation with Dr. Yossi David, a leading researcher in social biases, migration trauma,…
May 24, 2026 · 24:34
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/vUl5DjWhCBk Lovina's personal story: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHs Former Swartzentruber Amish teacher Lovina Zook takes us inside…
May 17, 2026 · 43:01
Link to the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHs Lovina Zook, a former Swartzentruber Amish woman who left her community at age 18 with only $24 to her…
May 10, 2026 · 12:23
video link: I feel I am completely incoherent here but also raw in a way I felt I wanted to share anyway. I’ve organized my thoughts in many videos in ways that I think (hope) is…
May 6, 2026 · 1:07:09
Video link: https://youtube.com/live/XDNed30Yqng?feature=share Riki and I recently talked children's games and had fun on my living room floor: https://youtu.be/uvwSkTZbjOo She…
May 3, 2026 · 21:14
Link to the video version: https://youtu.be/uvwSkTZbjOo You can buy kugelech here: https://amzn.to/3YbJPTH Can you play this game? Do you know these chants? In this video, I…
Apr 30, 2026 · 1:11:21
Video version of this segment: https://youtube.com/live/_5ZJi2noZOg?feature=share Naomi Seidman shares about her research on Jewish love and romance, her own marriage and the…
Apr 19, 2026 · 1:33:27
A 26-year-old collector opens his personal library to reveal the dramatic, human stories hidden inside antique Jewish Talmuds. In this video, Samuel Marks takes us through his…
Apr 19, 2026 · 45:50
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/qjtlgrLe92w Meet Samuel Marks, a young collector whose passion for rare Judaica brings overlooked corners of postwar Hasidic…
Apr 16, 2026 · 1:34:11
Video of this interview: Melissa Weisz grew up in Hasidic, Yiddish-speaking Boro Park and left the fold well before the OTD phenomenon became famous. I believe she left the fold…
Apr 12, 2026 · 48:01
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/bk6Q2RIN_mE "You're not shutting me up." - Jewish comedy icon Judy Gold, 2026 Judy Gold is a lot of things. She's an icon, she's a…
Apr 5, 2026 · 57:07
Link to video version of this episode: In this episode, I’m joined by historian Glenn Dynner, who was my professor years ago and played a pivotal role in getting me started as a…
Mar 29, 2026 · 1:00:00
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/QuMAGZuI5J0 Frieda and @_yiddishkeit discuss the seder with a mix of amazing haggadah illustrations and childhood memories. CHAPTERS…
Mar 25, 2026 · 39:30
video link to this trip down memory lane: https://youtu.be/S3c7Px2jMRo Hasidic Jews go hard for Passover. The goal is not to come into any contact with bread. But this has turned…
Mar 22, 2026 · 45:30
video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/XLDwhIRumwU This is comedy. Baily is the character of the famous Jewish comedian Leah Forster. I love Baily. She is very kind to me…
Mar 15, 2026 · 1:15:45
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/kP_NgV7y_Cs What happens when modern medicine meets a tight-knit Hasidic world? In this long-form conversation, Frieda…
Mar 8, 2026 · 34:14
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/Biqnh3CZIFo I have so many thoughts and feelings about illness and being ex-Hasidic. About losing community support, about how my…
Mar 4, 2026 · 30:06
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/n8g9RwmGwF8 Dan is a Jewish interpreter who immigrated from the Soviet Union. He believes his Soviet past taught him important…
Mar 1, 2026 · 1:52:22
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/Nmw9jZM2aYU The story of a Jew who grew up in the Soviet Union and learned little about his Judaism but some other hard lessons that…
Feb 22, 2026 · 53:10
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/4MPf67ftXME Jacob Kornbluh is a Hasidic reporter covering the Mamdani beat at a moment when Zohran Mamdani has become a lightning rod…
Feb 18, 2026 · 1:14:45
Video link to this full Pearl repost: https://youtu.be/Uo5mf0_1izY Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Feb 15, 2026 · 1:04:32
Link to video version of this conversation: https://youtu.be/2iPiYwftPyg In this interview, I speak with Miriam Vidal about her childhood growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and…
Feb 11, 2026 · 37:42
Video version: https://youtu.be/MyGxlBywfAc Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Feb 1, 2026 · 56:14
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/css7bPGITTE This video is le’ilui nishmas (dedicated to the souls) of the dear people lost at Bondi Beach, and dedicated to their…
Jan 28, 2026 · 17:35
Video version here: https://youtu.be/F9xzvdkMXMI Let me read to you some Yiddish from 1977 and unpack the values and worldview of the Hasidic young girls through the moral…
Jan 25, 2026 · 44:24
video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/RK7_--5f0Tc What happens when intimacy is expected before it’s understood? The Wedding Night is a striking and deeply intimate…
Jan 21, 2026 · 44:04
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/naUJMITJ5sY The article is here: https://friedavizel.com/2014/06/06/a-church-in-kiryas-joel Become a supporter of this podcast:…
Jan 18, 2026 · 14:11
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/ClAU6WJfj8U One of my earliest video and, in my view, an important one to repost at this time. Forgive the repost. Lots of new…
Jan 16, 2026 · 1:37:56
Video version here: https://youtu.be/ZlWRN4jo-CA As someone who grew up in Kiryas Joel and left the fold, I have a lot to say on this Hasidic village. There's good and bad. There…
Jan 13, 2026 · 34:52
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/qUDGHnwTUPw Follow along with the pdf of the story here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JCIYkr489nAvNDZQapUJ9UzTdmeCpt-8/view?usp…
Jan 11, 2026 · 1:17:40
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/jcz0xmkm10s The Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel’s early days in the 1970s and 80s were anything but quiet. They were marked by…
Jan 4, 2026 · 1:07:06
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/koTlTNYXoxI This video is the extended sit-down conversation from my visit with the Bukharyan Jewish community in Forest Hills,…
Dec 24, 2025 · 1:00:40
Video version here: https://youtu.be/1j7yKcjT4K8 Follow Avrum's wonderful podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@avrumrosensweigshow Follow Frieda on Youtube here:…
Dec 7, 2025 · 1:21:38
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/bY7w9icDKgU Leah Forster is, as they say in the Hasidic community, “one in a million.” She’s funny, she sings, she’s creative, and…
Dec 7, 2025 · 38:35
video link: https://youtube.com/live/OjxrGU4Ajbc Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Dec 6, 2025 · 29:57
Video link: https://youtube.com/live/8IEgx00P7OE A livestream about the NYT op doc about the Wedding Night for Orthodox Jewish couples. Watch the opdoc here:…
Nov 30, 2025 · 1:00:56
Link to video of this interview: https://youtu.be/qMKonpTHj24 A candid discussion about Orthodox Judaism and its views on abortion, infertility and loss of unborn life. This…
Nov 23, 2025 · 58:22
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/jjk5K5Rp6e4 A conversation on Orthodox Judaism and reproductive laws Today I’m sitting down once again with Rabbi Ysoscher Katz, a…
Nov 9, 2025 · 1:07:34
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/1y8ejrX4Jos In this episode, I talk with Miriam Udel, who teaches Yiddish language, literature, and culture at Emory University.…
Oct 26, 2025 · 8:41
Today's episode is a repost of my most personal video as I take a bit of time to recover from the months of my mother's illness. Link to video version of this post:…
Oct 19, 2025 · 1:34:05
Video version: https://youtu.be/1Vzxhb9kFOk Riki Rose grew up in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg, and in this video, she comes back for a visit. It’s a return that’s equal…
Oct 12, 2025 · 1:17:38
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/IfWm5mlQRwg When Jewish worshippers were attacked in the UK during Yom Kippur, it struck a nerve far beyond the synagogue walls. In…
Sep 28, 2025 · 40:49
Video link to this segment: https://youtu.be/87TYqw7aKbI Step into a world where sleight of hand meets Hasidic life. In this episode, I sit down with Dovy, a young magician from…
Sep 21, 2025 · 41:31
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/IdA3uHWGEtg In today’s video, I’m honored to share with you the remarkable story of Nelly Grussgott. This footage was originally…
Sep 14, 2025 · 55:19
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/QWLnKjrpcuA Join me for a fascinating conversation with documentary filmmaker Paula Eiselt, the Emmy-nominated, Peabody-…
Sep 7, 2025 · 1:28:19
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/WSYIhDbY0VY In this conversation, I speak with Rabbi Mayer Schiller, a Hasidic Jew based in Monsey, New York, known for his deep…
Aug 24, 2025 · 49:45
Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/OhEuezMqyaE In this video, I sit down with Mattel, a young YouTuber from the Hasidic community whose passion for languages is…
Aug 17, 2025 · 1:28:26
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/Uj5wHch-kx4 MOVIES WE DISCUSS IN THIS VIDEO: Yentl – https://amzn.to/3HmMZPQ Fiddler on the Roof – https://amzn.to/4lhQbKo…
Aug 10, 2025 · 30:41
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/1zQ1rSDUUVE A Balcony in Kazimierz: A Candid Conversation on Jews, Poland, and Post-Holocaust Memory In this deeply personal and…
Aug 3, 2025 · 17:12
Video link: https://youtu.be/5JUhkH71qUc How Hasidic Women Dress: A Conversation with Pearl from Williamsburg What does modest clothing mean in the Hasidic world—and how is it…
Jul 20, 2025 · 1:21:05
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/aAHE9YNnxf8 What was it like to grow up in 1960s Boro Park as the daughter of survivors—and as a girl who wanted to run? In this…
Jun 22, 2025 · 1:21:37
Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/UZTQRkr-rIs Long before social media became what it is today, the internet met Rebbetzin Rivka Leah Zelwig—a charmingly extreme…
Jun 15, 2025 · 1:10:31
Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/IRTvj1_4_14 In this interview, Naftuli Moster reflects on his years as the face of a controversial campaign to reform…
Jun 8, 2025 · 56:56
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/XYPuTNOry3U When I was Hasidic, dieting and brisk walking were part of life—but the gym? Muscle-building? Weight training? That…
May 25, 2025 · 12:45
Video version of this posting: https://youtu.be/uHu_17N9GdE I grew up in a very special place: the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel. It was beautiful and painful all at once. I…
May 18, 2025 · 1:18:17
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.…
May 4, 2025 · 1:18:54
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.…
Apr 27, 2025 · 1:17:28
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…
Apr 15, 2025 · 31:28
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/MnFddZtaWdQ Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Apr 6, 2025 · 14:16
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:…
Apr 6, 2025 · 28:21
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…
Mar 23, 2025 · 59:13
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…
Mar 16, 2025 · 1:20:56
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…
Mar 9, 2025 · 55:17
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…
Feb 23, 2025 · 1:10:11
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…
Feb 16, 2025 · 1:03:31
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…
Feb 9, 2025 · 1:06:54
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…
Jan 26, 2025 · 49:37
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…
Jan 19, 2025 · 39:47
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…
Dec 29, 2024 · 20:39
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…
Nov 24, 2024 · 36:31
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…
Nov 23, 2024 · 1:03:16
Video version here: https://youtu.be/AUdw8W71Gv8 *Sensitive content warning. This conversation contains adult themes.* Peggy Greenfield is a certified relationship and intimacy…
Nov 3, 2024 · 52:09
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…
Oct 26, 2024 · 50:23
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…
Oct 12, 2024 · 1:08:50
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,…
Oct 8, 2024 · 33:35
Youtube video: https://youtu.be/aTkJpC3h7cg Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .
Oct 8, 2024 · 51:08
Join me for an interview with the Hasidic Yiddish influencer Raizy Fried. Please check out the youtube version of this video here: https://youtu.be/oycLsS4ulyg In my work…
Sep 29, 2024 · 15:39
Link to video version of this conversation: https://youtu.be/O-ov6vTAAqQ?si=uqY1x8Yt-8woN-TD In this video I talk to Hasidic Jew Rabbi Mendel Hersh Paneth about the community's…
Sep 8, 2024 · 41:27
*Note: the play discussed here contains violence* For the video version of this interview see here. In this long-form interview, I talk to theater director Igor Goylak about a…
Aug 4, 2024 · 58:08
For YouTube version see here: https://youtu.be/DQgG_Pzxazg Baily is a character of a Hasidic woman who spends her summers in the bungalow colonies in upstate New York. In this…
Jul 21, 2024 · 53:47
Andrew Jacobs directed the beautiful documentary 'Four Seasons Lodge' about holocaust survivors who spent every summer in the Catskills in a bungalow colony, connecting and…
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