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 explore kugela (plural: kugelach)—a simple game of five stones that carries centuries of history. With Yiddish singer Riki Rose, we try to play, reminisce about childhood games, and uncover a whole world of “oldies” that once shaped how children everywhere played.
Before toy stores, before screens, children made their own fun—on stoops, in streets, with whatever they could find. Many of those games have faded from mainstream culture. But in Hasidic Brooklyn, they’re still alive.
We talk about:
– How kugela (five stones/knucklebones) is played
– The culture of homemade play before modern toys
– Street games, chants, and clapping rhymes
– Why Hasidic communities preserved these traditions
– The strange, funny, and sometimes dark songs we all grew up with
This is part nostalgia, part cultural anthropology, and part me failing at a children’s game.
Watch more videos with Riki Rose:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhW2QoO54ycwpngXudOzA5as9MfS4Ss6A
Riki Rose:
--} YouTube: @riki_rose
--} Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riki_rose/
If you grew up with any of these games or chants, tell me in the comments—I’m collecting them.
Frieda
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