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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 of the Chanukah 2025 attack in Sydney, an event his family lived through and one in which his daughter’s life was miraculously saved. Rabbi Eichenblatt speaks not only about fear and shock, but about what came after. He recalls the night following the attack, sitting at home with his family, shaken and uncertain, and consciously turning toward faith rather than retreat. Drawing deeply on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he describes an approach rooted in responsibility, hope, and the idea of being a messenger to spread light, especially after darkness. This is a testimony shaped by loss and danger, but also by profound optimism, a belief that light is not passive and that faith asks something active of us, even in the most fragile moments. Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulrabbi/ Video from the day of the attack: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSR06KeEg2i/ Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

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.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

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 their marriage on the wedding night. The film grows out of Elitzur’s own traumatic wedding-night experience, which led her to seek out others with similar stories. Many participants felt unable to appear on camera, so their voices are heard anonymously, paired with carefully staged reenactments performed by actors. A very unusual method of storytelling. In the shorter version published in the New York Times in December 2025, the actors were totally removed. 📰 Here is a shorter version of this story appeared in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/opinion/ultra-orthodox-jewish-wedding-night.html 🎥 Here is the full extended documentary The Wedding Night can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lOnex1o5h8&t=5s 🎬 Instagram link to filmmaker: Rachel Elitzur https://www.instagram.com/elitzurachel/ This film connects to broader conversations I’ve explored on this channel about sex, intimacy, silence, and expectation in Orthodox and Hasidic communities: • How Hasidic teens learn about sex https://youtu.be/Gk917OpgS_Q • My own painful experience leaving an arranged marriage https://youtu.be/GvLO9Vhid44 • An intimacy coach shares delicate, rarely voiced perspectives https://youtu.be/AUdw8W71Gv8 • Pearl, a Hasidic woman, speaks about her own and her children’s matchmaker marriages https://youtu.be/yQ_GgbC9RD4 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/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 work incredibly hard. The stereotypes of this community as "welfare queens" whose men study torah and don't work is so damaging and not true.  @TylerOliveira 's recent video will so deeply reinforce these misconceptions. I've done a video where I went through the phone book and showed the extensive numbers of businesses Hasidim are into. It's so sad that his platform will create so much misrepresentation. This is my first take reaction to his video. Please forgive my early morning rants and rambles. I am watching it raw with you. I find it quite upsetting and ignorant. I hope my deep feelings that this community is complicated, imperfect, should be criticized but is also often misrepresented comes through. This is long - well Tyler's video is long. Please watch some of my other videos, especially my video on how Hasidim earn a living. https://youtu.be/UXXOGYqbK5o What it was like for me to grow up in Kiryas Joel https://youtu.be/uHu_17N9GdE My interview with Fradel Newman, lifetime resident of Kiryas Joel https://youtu.be/HoTzWaF7dU8 Interview with civil rights lawyer Michael Sussman, who can really speak for some of the dark side https://youtu.be/jcz0xmkm10s 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/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 obedience, kindness, respect to the elders, safety, trust in each other, modesty, and more.  Please let me know what you think I missed. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

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 most outspoken internal critics during its formative years. Though he was neither Hasidic nor Orthodox, Sussman became deeply entangled in the village’s internal struggles—so much so that, to many of us growing up there, his name became part of the folklore. There was even a dissident synagogue nicknamed the Sussman Shul. This conversation explores the early legal wars that shaped Kiryas Joel: battles over governance, power, dissent, and most famously, the creation of a public school for children with special needs. That case—Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet—went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and sits at the uneasy intersection of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. I also approach this story personally. Kiryas Joel is where I grew up and spent 25 formative years of my life. I married at 18, became a mother to my son Seth shortly after, and absorbed these conflicts as background noise to childhood—names, sides, “politics” that hovered at the edges of daily life. As an adult, I’ve returned to this history with new questions and a deeper curiosity about how insular religious subcultures navigate American law. This interview is part of a broader attempt to document the oral histories of Kiryas Joel’s early years. I have made repeated efforts to reach figures from the other side of these disputes to record their recollections as well, but so far without success. That invitation remains open. If you want to go deeper into this story, here are essential resources: Book — American Shtetl https://amzn.to/49Lmz5z Documentary — City of Joel https://amzn.to/4soIDKC Archival footage collected by dissident Joseph Waldman: https://www.youtube.com/@thekingofaron Website for Michael Sussman: https://www.sussman.law/ This is a story about Kiryas Joel, but it’s also a story about America: about pluralism, law, dissent, and the price of making space for radically different ways of life under one constitutional roof. 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/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 lived for centuries in relative isolation in Central Asia. Today, very few remain there, but the culture is alive and evolving in new places. New York is one of them. In the broader visit, I toured the neighborhood with Abe from @BukharianBites, visited the restaurant Nadezhda in Queens, and cooked a Chanukah treat called Hushquiliq with Mazal. This video focuses on the conversation itself—the personal history behind the food. 🔗 Follow Abe on Instagram: Bukharian Bites https://www.instagram.com/bukharianbites/ 🔗 Abe on Substack https://substack.com/@bukharianbites 🔗 Abe on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@UCtWCGTdaMOF2eDiSJOXZ7yA ➡️ The short vlog about my trip to Queens to explore this community: https://youtu.be/m2NT3r7rs20 ➡️ My earlier video on Bukharyan Jewish tandoori bread baked in a clay oven: https://youtu.be/UH3PnRYYquM?si=wZmb88p-6u9WHcLb Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

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 terrible tumor. Leah agreed to sit down with me to talk about her experience. In true Leah fashion, the conversation didn’t go where I expected, and we had a long, winding talk about all sorts of things, including illness, suffering, and faith. But many other things as well. My takeaway was that it’s often hard to talk about difficult things while they are happening. I pray for Leah’s daughter’s complete recovery, as well as for my mother’s. My mother has been doing so much better, and I thank you all so much for the prayers. Please pray for Leah’s daughter’s continued recovery.  Please check out more of Leah! She has a new book out: https://amzn.to/4pEJYuG Find her on Instagram (she’s back!): https://www.instagram.com/leahforster/ My previous interview with Leah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQgG_Pzxazg&t My first interview with Leah: https://youtu.be/92nDFiyfVU8 I love talking to comedians, and  I’ve interviewed quite a few others, including Danielle Jacobs, Riki Rose, Modi Rosenfeld, Antonia Lassar, and of course, Leah! Please check them out here: https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLhW2QoO54ycxK9b4GLY9oGn38tXRPT0vQ/videos Thanks so much to all of you for brightening and lightening dark days. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

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, sexual norms, and the wider landscape of ethical questions around them. The aim is a thoughtful, free-flowing conversation that makes room for nuance, real history, and lived experience. Rabbi Katz grew up in Hasidic Williamsburg and later left Hasidism while remaining within the Orthodox world. He has served as Senior Rabbi of the Prospect Heights Shul and is currently Chair of the Talmud Department at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Throughout his career, he has engaged with what he calls “cutting-edge issues” inside halachic discourse — including gender, sexual abuse, and other areas of communal tension. Many viewers also know his mother, Gita Katz, the sharp, unforgettable Hasidic woman featured in several of my videos. Rabbi Katz is her eldest, once considered a standout student in the Williamsburg community before charting his own path. Today he brings a rare mix of insider knowledge, rigorous training, and a willingness to tackle difficult conversations publicly. He also maintains an active presence on Facebook, where he moderates discussions that often get very heated. Rabbi Katz’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ysoscher.katz If this conversation resonates, you may also enjoy these related interviews: Related Videos:  Part 1 with Rabbi Katz https://youtu.be/jjk5K5Rp6e4 -My earlier interview with Rabbi Katz on the Satmar Rebbe: https://youtu.be/8oVcC5z24c4The book I mentioned is 'I am Forbidden' by Anouk Markovits: https://amzn.to/49lfr09A Hasidic woman’s views on women’s issues — my interview with Pearl (and yes… Pearl is Gita’s close friend!) https://youtu.be/IaqonzHozVMA note of thanks: Many thanks to all of you who are able to support this channel. If you do end-of-year giving, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help cover the cost of producing these videos. Many episodes cost far more to edit than YouTube pays in ad revenue, and the channel only continues because of the generosity of its viewers. Donate here: https://shorturl.at/WqXnL 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/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 this new interview opens the door to another set of complex, meaningful topics. This discussion is Part 1 of a two-part interview. Part 2 is now released for channel members and will soon be released for all. https://youtu.be/qMKonpTHj24 In this episode, we explore reproductive halacha: Jewish legal thought on abortion, infertility, contraception, gender identity, sexual norms, and the wider landscape of ethical questions around them. The aim is a thoughtful, free-flowing conversation that makes room for nuance, real history, and lived experience. Rabbi Katz grew up in Hasidic Williamsburg and later left Hasidism while remaining within the Orthodox world. He has served as Senior Rabbi of the Prospect Heights Shul and is currently Chair of the Talmud Department at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Throughout his career, he has engaged with what he calls “cutting-edge issues” inside halachic discourse — including gender, sexual abuse, and other areas of communal tension. Many viewers also know his mother, Gita Katz, the sharp, unforgettable Hasidic woman featured in several of my videos. Rabbi Katz is her eldest, once considered a standout student in the Williamsburg community before charting his own path. Today he brings a rare mix of insider knowledge, rigorous training, and a willingness to tackle difficult conversations publicly. He also maintains an active presence on Facebook, where he moderates discussions that often get very heated. Rabbi Katz’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ysoscher.katz If this conversation resonates, you may also enjoy these related interviews: Related Videos: Part 2 with Rabbi Katz (early release for channel members; coming soon to all viewers): https://youtu.be/qMKonpTHj24My earlier interview with Rabbi Katz on the Satmar Rebbe: https://youtu.be/8oVcC5z24c4My interview with Rabbi Katz’s mother, Gita Katz (about her life): https://youtu.be/2saQ0LEwZXQA Hasidic woman’s views on women’s issues — my interview with Pearl (and yes… Pearl is Gita’s close friend!) https://youtu.be/IaqonzHozVM A note of thanks: Many thanks to all of you who are able to support this channel. If you do end-of-year giving, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help cover the cost of producing these videos. Many episodes cost far more to edit than YouTube pays in ad revenue, and the channel only continues because of the generosity of its viewers. Donate here: https://shorturl.at/WqXnL Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.