Zogerke

feldmesterin

Bobtshke Kilikovski Cohen, the zogerke who measured cemeteries

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

feldmesterin

'The women came into the synagogue wailing like a storm' - a memory from Tomashov

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

feldmesterin

'Lost souls' from a 1928 ethnographic study

This is one section of a long article by H. Heyoys, published in YIVO's filologishe shriftn in 1928, entitled 'Beliefs and customs in...

feldmesterin

Woman soul

This week I've been teaching an online workshop at Yiddish New York about Ashkenazi Jewish women's customs and practices. For the past...

feldmesterin

Leybeshekhe the 'Cemetery Jewess' of Kremenits

Zogerke, Zogerin and Firzogerin, are all female forms of Zoger – announcer or preacher, and are usually used to denote a female prayer...

feldmesterin

Shiphrah-Leah, the zogerke of Kletsk

In the Yizker (memorial) book written by former residents of the shtetl Kletsk, now in Belarus, I found the following short description...

feldmesterin

Witches gotta eat

'Feldmesterin’ sometimes appears alongside other ‘superstitious’ female trades, including witchcraft. Here are two examples from maskilic...