feldmesterinJun 142 min read'The entire shtetl accompanied her to her eternal rest' - reverence for the midwife As I wrote on the introduction page about midwives - known in Yiddish as bobes or heybams - a crucial source on the role and importance...
feldmesterinJan 13, 20234 min read'Rifke the crazy one' and Bobe Tzinke 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...
feldmesterinDec 30, 20222 min readBeyle Shoyver's 'childbirth mitsve' From Rabbi Tuvia Gutman- Rappaport, ‘The biography of a generation’, Yizker-bukh Koriv, (1955) p. 674. Beyle Shoyver, who did charitable...
feldmesterinMar 7, 20213 min readWitches gotta eat In Yiddish literature, the practices described on this website are often viewed disparagingly, especially when women used to do them for...