
Show Notes
Link to the video version: https://youtu.be/uvwSkTZbjOo
You can buy kugelech here: https://amzn.to/3YbJPTH Can you play this game? Do you know these chants? In this video, I explore kugela (plural: kugelach)—a simple game of five stones that carries centuries of history. With Yiddish singer Riki Rose, we try to play, reminisce about childhood games, and uncover a whole world of “oldies” that once shaped how children everywhere played. Before toy stores, before screens, children made their own fun—on stoops, in streets, with whatever they could find. Many of those games have faded from mainstream culture. But in Hasidic Brooklyn, they’re still alive. We talk about: – How kugela (five stones/knucklebones) is played – The culture of homemade play before modern toys – Street games, chants, and clapping rhymes – Why Hasidic communities preserved these traditions – The strange, funny, and sometimes dark songs we all grew up with This is part nostalgia, part cultural anthropology, and part me failing at a children’s game. Watch more videos with Riki Rose: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhW2QoO54ycwpngXudOzA5as9MfS4Ss6A Riki Rose: --} YouTube: @riki_rose --} Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riki_rose/ If you grew up with any of these games or chants, tell me in the comments—I’m collecting them. Frieda
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More from The Frieda Vizel Podcast
Twenty years ago today, I created a pseudonym for myself: Shpitzle Shtrimpkind. A 21-year-old Hasidic mother of a little baby boy, hiding furiously behind my alias. My first post was an attempt to defend my community. Within a month or two, I experienced a profound internal shift I couldn't stop or undo. It led me on a road of so much heartache, discovery, curiosity, friendship, loss, love, joy, and sorrow. If I had known then what I know now, I don't know that I would have ever created Shpitzel Shtrimpkind. But it happened. Life happens, whether we have courage for it or not. And I'm grateful for the chance to live life. Living life means getting hurt, falling low, and rebuilding. And it's been all that plus hell, but I'm grateful every day for the light, the hope, the kindness and of course - the audience that made me. Thanks for being here.
video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/9BwmSQ0Vwsk
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/Bt0V4N9lGfc
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/guXQwZ9h_5U
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/LK2b0mAYKqA