The Frieda Vizel Podcast

Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/7CBHWJwmAJI

Many people know Pessy from her popular Yiddish comedy videos, where she lovingly and hilariously captures the world of Hasidic women. She was one of the first creators to bring that world to social media through a female lens, and her sharp observations and humor have earned her a devoted following.

But behind the comedy is a remarkable personal story.
Pessy grew up in a Hasidic family in Monsey and spent much of her childhood carrying responsibilities that no child should have to carry. As the oldest sister, she watched her family struggle through the challenges surrounding her younger sister and felt an overwhelming need to hold everything together. She learned early on that being "good" and "perfect" seemed to be the safest way to survive difficult circumstances.

In our conversation, Pessy speaks with extraordinary honesty about family, faith, rejection, and the pressure she felt to meet everyone's expectations. She shares how religion became a source of comfort, how she entered marriage determined to be the perfect wife, and how she concealed her own struggles because she didn't want to burden the people she loved.

What makes Pessy's story so powerful is not simply what happened to her, but the way she reflects on it. She brings insight, humor, and compassion to experiences that could easily have left her bitter. Her story touches on themes that are deeply personal and yet almost universal: the desire to be accepted, the weight of responsibility, the loneliness of feeling misunderstood, and the long journey toward self-acceptance.

Pessy's story is, in many ways, everyone's story. I hope you'll watch this conversation with kindness and an open heart.
You can find Pessy on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pessyunstressing/

You might also enjoy some of my other interviews with women from the Yiddish-speaking Hasidic community:
Melissa Weisz
https://youtube.com/live/j16Dlc5iRGo
Fradel Neuman
https://youtu.be/HoTzWaF7dU8
Sara Braun
https://youtu.be/1E54wVSn-wM
Gita Katz
https://youtu.be/2saQ0LEwZXQ

As always, my interviews are also available in audio-only form wherever you get your podcasts.
And thank you especially to my channel members for helping make these conversations possible.

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/ixZOxV5BuCI

Eddy Portnoy is back by popular demand, after our wonderful discussion on the history of Yiddish language. Eddy is the exhibit curator at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and does amazing Yiddish/Jewish curations.

Today’s subject is juicy but educational, eye-opening, and enlightening.
We are diving into the shocking and largely forgotten story of the National Desertion Bureau, a real organization founded in New York in 1911 to track down runaway Jewish husbands who abandoned their wives and children during the great wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to North America.

For more on this below.

Here are some links:
-My previous interview with Eddy: https://youtu.be/tq8y3KkAWTk?si=-KdfW3UJBkiMdrh_
-The Yivo Exhibit: https://www.yivo.org/National-Desertion-Bureau
-📘 THE BOOK ON THIS: Wives without Husbands: Marriage, Desertion, and Welfare in New York, 1900–1935 by Anna R. Igra https://amzn.to/4tGvhbZ

Popular stereotypes about Jewish husbands tend to be flattering: loyal, hardworking, stable, family-oriented. Which is exactly why so many people have never heard of this dark social crisis that unfolded inside immigrant Jewish communities during the early 20th century. Behind the romanticized image of the immigrant success story was another reality entirely: crushing poverty, overcrowded tenements, fractured families, emotional collapse, and men disappearing without a trace.

The problem became so widespread that Yiddish newspapers like the legendary The Forward published daily columns called “The Gallery of Missing Husbands,” complete with mugshots and descriptions of men who vanished and left their families destitute. There were even Lower East Side psychics who specialized in helping women locate missing husbands.
From 1905 through the 1960s, the National Desertion Bureau investigated more than 18,000 cases, working with courts, police departments, charities, and governments to track down deserters, force support payments, and sometimes even jail offenders. The surviving files read like tragic little novellas filled with betrayal, desperation, ruined finances, abandoned children, and impossible choices made during an era of massive upheaval.

The archives at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research contain roughly 17,000 surviving case files from the Bureau, many of which formed the basis for the exhibition *Runaway Husbands, Desperate Families: The Story of the National Desertion Bureau*, curated by Eddy himself.
In this episode, Eddy walks us through this extraordinary hidden chapter of Jewish history and helps unpack what these stories reveal about immigration, masculinity, poverty, shame, survival, and the fragile reality behind nostalgic immigrant mythology.

Before we begin, I want to thank those of you who are channel members and help make this work possible. Members get early access to videos before they are released publicly. I deeply appreciate all of you, members, subscribers, commenters, and everyone who participates in these conversations and helps keep this channel alive.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/KCS9vAundms

How do you tell the history of Jews in Poland? Why is there so much debate about this from Polish people? I ask the curator of the Polin museum about her work at the crux of this debate: when telling the story of Polish Jewish history for the museum. 

Watch part 1 for Barbara's life story here: https://youtu.be/xXqmG4rI-sE

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.

Video link: https://youtu.be/qdQi26lBQ7Q

Today I have the great honor and pleasure of speaking with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a renowned scholar of Jewish culture, folklore, and performance studies. She is best known for her work exploring how Jewish history and heritage are presented in museums and public culture, and she served as the chief curator of the core exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the landmark institution that tells the thousand-year history of Jews in Poland.

Barbara's own story, and her relationship with her father, is part of the Polish Jewish story. For many years, her father shared memories of his life in Poland with his Canadian-born daughter. Later, during a period of depression, he began illustrating those memories in a remarkable series of paintings. Those paintings became the foundation for a book Barbara created, preserving both his experiences and a vanished world.

Please check out part 2 where we talk about Barbara's work in Poland as the chief curator of the Polin musuem. https://youtu.be/KCS9vAundms

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/gwCyNjr2vU0

Today I am talking to Doran from the channel  @TheEasyWayDMS  about philosophical subjects. What is antisemitism? How does it form and change? What are the guises it comes in? In a world in which there's so much muddled dialogue about antisemitism, I thought it was important to have a nuanced, thoughtful conversation. I invite your comments and thoughts.

For more on this subject, see these videos:
Everyone is talking about Jews: https://youtu.be/A1aOTCsYQfM
My experience with antisemitism as a Jewish content creator: https://youtube.com/live/IZuSqgQGDBU
Antisemitic attack in the UK with Izzy Posen https://youtu.be/IfWm5mlQRwg
He lived through the Bondi Beach attack: https://youtu.be/css7bPGITTE

Also, check out my conversation with Doran for his channel.
https://youtu.be/utFUQCFnqdc?si=UEUJJjqYDNKhdoie

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-frieda-vizel-podcast--5824414/support.