Rokhl Kafrissen is a teacher, cultural critic, and playwright and the winner of the prestigious 2022 Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish prize. She’s been writing about life in the capital of Yiddishland since 2005, when her “Rootless Cosmopolitan” column began appearing in Jewish Currents . Between 2017 and the end of 2024 her “Rokhl’s Golden City” column appeared in Tablet magazine 150 times, covering the length and breadth of Yiddish culture. Her opinion pieces, reviews, and essays have appeared in publications all over the world, including Haaretz , Forward , Lilith , Pakn Treger, J ewish Week , and Sapir Journal , and her work has been cited in numerous academic books and articles. She has gained a following for her classes on “Everyday Ashkenazi Magic” and her unique teaching style allows students to discover Ashkenazi folk culture through Yiddish texts: literature, journalism, ethnography, folk song, and more. Having lived in New York City for over 25 years, Rokhl ...
A few selections from Rokhl’s Golden City , 150 columns filed between 2017 and 2024 Holidays Shvues/Shavuot Sukes/Sukkot Hanukah Everyday Ashkenazi Folk Magic and Folk Religion Folk medicine Making Soul Candles Women’s Yiddish Prayers ( tkhines ) The many incarnations of the Dybbuk Talking to the Dead Profiles of women Regine: Queen of the Night and French-Jewish Pop Star Extraordinaire Ruth Rubin: Between the American folk music revival and Yiddish folk song collecting Jewlia Eisenberg: A Great Channel of Spirit