Author: feldmesterin
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Upcoming cemetery measuring workshop in Mount Carmel Cemetery
Unfortunately I’m not able to be in New York this year, but my fellow feldmesterins Sarah Chandler aka Kohenet Shamirah of Shamir Collective, Rabbi Noam Lerman, Eleonore Weill and Chelsea Simon are going to be back in Mount Carmel cemetery for our annual Elul cemetery measuring workshop. Tickets are available here. And you can watch…
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Sore-Rokhl the cemetery measurer of Krinki
In honour of Rosh Khoydesh Elel, a short excerpt from the memorial book of Krinski (Krynki), in Poland, remembering the zogerke, klogerke, beterke and cemetery measurer, Sore-Rokhl “di grobe” (“the fat one”). I have also translated a very short reference from the same memoir to a woman in a nearby village who knew how to…
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Grave measuring and soul candle making kits now available from Pushcart Judaica
Elul is fast approaching, and he amazing Sarah Chandler (Kohenet Shamirah) of Shamir Collective—my feldmestn collaborator for the past four years— has made grave measuring and soul candle making kits using my ritual guides, which are now available to order from Pushcart Judaica Each kit contains: Candle wick (enough to measure two averaged-sized graves) Pliable…
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Midwives and soul-candle makers : the pious women of Burshtyn
An extract from Yoysef Shvarts, ‘Tipn un geshtaltn’ (Characters and personalities) from this memorial book to the town of Burshtyn, Ukraine. Feyge the midwife The doctors, Mandsheyn and Makh, who began working in Burshtyn from the beginning of the twentieth century, must have really racked their brains to find a way to make a living.…
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Mourning women and cemetery prayer leaders in interwar Vilna
This is just a short post to share this incredible photo, featured on p 23 of the New York Yiddish Forverts Jan 27, 1924. The Yiddish caption reads “These are the “zogerkes” and “klog muters” of the Vilna cemetery. When they are paid, they cry and recite tkhines (yiddish prayers) on behalf of the women…
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Aunt Libtsye with her prayer book
This incredible short account of Libtsye who led her community in prayer as they were taken to be murdered in Rohatyn, Ukraine, is taken from a memorial book to a neighbouring shtetl, Burshtyn. It is the third in a series of posts that, following this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, I am sharing to remember women…
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Madwomen and midwives from Novogrudok
Two years ago, I took a course with Prof. David Fishman on the history of the shtetl. In one of our classes, Prof. Fishman showed us this video of the Belarussian shtetl Novogrudok/Navaredok, filmed in 1931 by former Novogrudok resident, the famous philologist, lexicographer and philanthropist Alexander Harkavy. About 3 mins 39 seconds in, the…
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Roiza Baila Czarnochapka Jedwabnik, the synagogue zogerke of Drobin
In honour of Holocaust Memorial Day, I will be sharing this week a few stories of women spiritual leaders who were murdered in the Nazi genocide. Today I am delighted to share my second guest post, in which my friend and teacher Shoshana Jedwab remembers her umgekumene (murdered) grandmother, Roiza Baila Czarnochapka Jedwabnik, may her…
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The Cemetery Zogerins of Kremenets
Two zogerins, Golde and Reyze, lead prayers in the cemetery. The photo appears to date from the interwar period. Kremenits, Vizshgorodev un Potshayev : yizker bukh, (Buenos Aires, 1965) 123. One particularly rich source on cemetery prayer leaders known as zogerins or zogerkes is this yizker bukh dedicated to the pre-war Jewish communities of Kremenets,…
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Brayndl the Zogerin from Mendele Moykhe Sforim’s “Di Klyatshe”
In this short excerpt from Mendele Moykher Sforim’s Di Klyatshe (The Mare), the protagonist, Yisroylik, who has been suffering from hallucinations, wakes up to find himself being fussed over by his mother and a number of local healers, among them Brayndl, the local zogerin. A title meaning “reciter” “speaker” or “preacheress”, zogerins were women who led…
Pulling at Threads 