Rokhl Kafrissen is a New York-based cultural critic and playwright.
Yiddish music that casts a spell
Before modern medicine became widely trusted, Eastern European Jews turned to folk remedies to fight sickness of every kind
The Yiddish Book Center’s new exhibit goes beyond the ‘great men’ in our cultural history
A new opera recalls a Sholem Aleichem tale that was left out of ‘Fiddler,’ and opens up a world of women’s prayers called ‘tkhines’
Stories of mourning by Isaac Bashevis Singer make perfect reading in this darkly anxious season
Isaac Bashevis Singer, evil spirits, and the injustice of ‘chained women’
A new translation of Itzik Manger’s 1939 Yiddish novel illustrates the author’s connection to Jewish folklore
Poetry and music to start the new year
A new exhibit captures the ‘modern-ish’ poetry and art of Yonia Fain
During the month of Elul, keeping alive a women’s folk tradition around the dead
Chava Lapin, who died last month, believed that Yiddish couldn’t be separated from the culture of its speakers
Pioneering folk music collector Ruth Rubin and the archives of ‘Sing Out!’ magazine
What to listen to this month while celebrating Pride
From opera to cabaret to electronic music and, yes, klezmer
A new book shines a light on Yiddish-oriented programs
A new Netflix series’s spin on the ‘shadkhn’
A Judy Blume movie and a new one-woman show speak to the children of intermarriage
The enduring power of Rivke Basman Ben-Hayim’s words