The Yiddish Book Center's

Yiddish Book Center Recorded Programs

Lectures, events, and public programs recorded at the Yiddish Book Center

TALK-BACK | New Yiddish Rep's "Di Froyen" (The Women)

Caraid O'Brien | David Mandelbaum | Malky Goldman | Melissa Weisz | Rachel Botchan

About this program:

TALK-BACK | New Yiddish Rep's "Di Froyen" (The Women)

Featuring: Caraid O'Brien | David Mandelbaum | Malky Goldman | Melissa Weisz | Rachel Botchan

A special talk-back and Q&A with Di Froyen co-writers Melissa Weisz and Malky Goldman, director Rachel Botchan, along with actor Caraid O'Brien and New Yiddish Rep's director, David Mandelbaum. (In English)

Presented in partnership with the New Yiddish Rep and as part of the Yiddish Book Center’s 2022 Decade of Discovery: Women in Yiddish.

Di Froyen tells the story of a woman from the Hasidic community of Brooklyn who has fled an abusive marriage and after being excommunicated and slandered, is being kept from her children. After two years, she gets a court order giving her visitation rights and returns with a secular Jewish social worker to enforce the order. She meets resistance from the women in her family until the story emerges that she has not actually abandoned her family, but fled for her life from a prominent husband who has a history of abuse. The women surrounding her are brought to realize what has happened. They ultimately unite to defend her and to empower women in their community suffering the same fate.

The play is based on Women’s Minyan, a Hebrew play by Naomi Ragen that was based on a true story. Ragen’s play was adapted for New Yiddish Rep (NYR) by Melissa Weisz and Malky Goldman, who were both born into the Hasidic community. Directed by Rachel Botchan.

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This event took place on April 03, 2022. It was presented online by the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

This recording was digitized and added to the library in November 2022.

This recording is in English

More information about this recording:

View the full record for this recording on Internet Archive.