The Frieda Vizel Podcast

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 would shape his life. Dan is a high-level interpreter and a thoughtful, intelligent man. He reached out to me after noticing how different his experience as a Soviet Jew was from mine. I grew up deeply engaged with my Jewi...

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 in Jewish communities. For many, Mamdani represents fear, anger, political anxiety, and deep uncertainty about where New York is headed. And in the middle of that storm is Kornbluh. Recently featured in The New York Times...

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 .

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 her eventual decision to leave the faith. As a Hasidic child growing up in Kiryas Joel, there was a strange building behind my house that we simply called “the church.” Every Saturday, rows of cars would pull up, and we kid...

Video version: https://youtu.be/MyGxlBywfAc Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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 loving families in mourning. May the families find moments of light in these unbearably hard days. My heart is with them. In this conversation, I speak with Sydney resident Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt, who shares his oral history...

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 lessons presented in this book. See how they were introduced to social values of obedience, kindness, respect to the elders, safety, trust in each other, modesty, and more. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreake...

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 documentary by Orthodox filmmaker Rachel Elitzur. It explores a rarely discussed reality inside ultra-Orthodox Jewish life: couples who marry after only a handful of supervised dates, then face the expectation of consummating...

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: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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 content coming soon. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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 are issues, and yes there are valid criticisms on its relationship to the welfare system, although this doesn't take away from the facts: that this is a community where the vast majority of men are gainfully employed and...

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=sharing  Let me read to you some Yiddish from 1977 and unpack the values and worldview of the Hasidic young girls through the moral lessons presented in this book. See how they were introduced to social values of obedien...

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 infighting, lawsuits, dissidents, and a legal battle so consequential it’s still taught in American law schools today. In this interview, I speak with lawyer Michael Sussman, the man who came to represent some of Kiryas Joel’s...

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, Queens. In this segment, Abe Fuzaylov and his mother-in-law Mazal slow things down and tell their stories—about family, memory, food, and what it means to carry a Central Asian Jewish heritage into New York. Bukharyan Jews once...

Video version here: https://youtu.be/1j7yKcjT4K8 Follow Avrum's wonderful podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@avrumrosensweigshow Follow Frieda on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/friedavizelbrooklyn Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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 she’s been on a spiritual journey for years. She’s an out lesbian woman from the Hasidic community who is now in no box, under no one’s label. She has one daughter. Over the last year, her daughter has been battling a terrib...

video link: https://youtube.com/live/OjxrGU4Ajbc Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/opinion/ultra-orthodox-jewish-wedding-night.html Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support .

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 discussion is Part 2 of a two-part interview. WATCH PART 1 HERE: https://youtu.be/jjk5K5Rp6e4 In this episode, we explore reproductive halacha: Jewish legal thought on abortion, infertility, contraception, gender identity, sex...

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 guest many of you have asked to hear more from. Our earlier conversation about the Satmar Rebbe sparked such strong reactions that people stopped me on the street to talk about it. It became a real conversation starter — and...

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. Miriam has done something quite wonderful—she’s brought to life a wide range of Yiddish children’s stories, translating them into English and making them accessible again. These stories, written before and after the Holocaus...

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: https://youtu.be/GvLO9Vhid44?si=MdFJVuZnUvXPcudP I was 25 when my husband divorced me. I was so attached to him, yet so firm in my belief that it was also time to let him go. After he left our marital home, he asked me to quickly proce...

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 parts stressful, triggering, exciting, heartwarming, funny, joyous—and yes, delicious. We eat, we laugh, we talk honestly about what it means to come back after leaving, and we even ask the awkward questions (like: are we...

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 this wide-ranging conversation, Izzy Posen and I explore the roots and realities of antisemitism in Britain today. Is immigration really to blame? How does Zionism complicate public attitudes toward Jews? And how has Britis...

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 the Bobov community who has built a career performing in gender-segregated, kosher spaces. Our conversation opens a window into how Hasidic youth, without traditional pathways like college or conventional careers, find cre...