In this extract from Mendele Moykher Sforim's Fishke der krumer, Fishke describes his wife, a blind orphan who makes her living by...

"Elul days" from Khaim Shoys, Dos Yontef Bukh (1933). Life goes on in the shtetl as usual. Yet, at the same time it is clear to anyone...

I'm very excited to have this article published in the online blog/journal Feminism and Religion, where I talk about this work and about...

As I wrote on the introduction page about midwives - known in Yiddish as bobes or heybams - a crucial source on the role and importance...

'Examples of laments by children', collected by Moyshe Melman in Brestetshke (Beresteczko, Berestetchka, Brestetshke, ברסטצ'ק,...

This klogenish (lament) is one of several collected by the YIVO ethnographic commission in the 1920s and 30s. The full collection can be...

Last year, in an event co-organised by Shamir Collective, Shomer Collective and the Workers' Circle, Sarah Chandler (Aka Kohenet...

Another short but sweet recollection of a real-life opshprekherke (healer through incantations) and feldmesterin (cemetery or grave...

Since it's the last day of Khanike, when, in some communities, the left over "dead thread" from Yom Kippur would be used to make khanike...

I'm getting ready today to teach my final class on this online course with JTS, in which we will be taking a closer look at the...

... plus look out next week for a new course with me Starting this week: Hannukah as elemental magic with Sarah Chandler, my...

In the shtetlekh of Eastern Europe, screaming, and public, evocative wailing were a common response to death and the danger of death....

In the summer of 2018, my little sister Viv got married. Our mother died when she was 2 and I was 4, and I was incredibly honoured when ...

We're one week away from Rosh Hashanah - historically the biggest working week of the year for feldmesterins. I wanted to re-share this...

And this means it's time to measure another cemetery. This Sunday I, Kohenet Shamira, and musician Eleonore Weil will be returning to the...

I'm excited to be getting out my ball of yarn again with my co-feldmesterin Sarah Chandler this Sunday, for this event with the...

I'm very excited to be presenting at this workshop on Sunday with Yelala , alongside these incredible Kohanot. Click here to sign up for...

In the memorial book to the Jewish community of Volkovisk (Vawkavysk, Belarus), I found my second description of a real life...

Two years ago, in the first semester of my PhD program, I took a course with Prof. David Fishman on the history of the shtetl. In one of...

This is an extract from Sh. Leibovitsh 'A krankn a refue' - healing for the sick - in the Tomashover Yizker Bukh (1965.) Leibovitz...