Miriam Anzovin | |
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| Born | Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, artist, internet personality |
| Known for | Daf Reactions (TikTok video series exploring the Talmud) |
Miriam Anzovin is an American-Jewish writer, artist and social media personality. [1] Her work focuses on American Jewish communal life and is best known for her Daf Reactions series of videos explaining passages from the Talmud posted to TikTok [2] and other social media platforms. [3] [4] [5]
Anzovin holds a degree in Judaic Studies from the University of Massachusetts and worked as a visual artist and content producer for JewishBoston.com. [6] In December 2021, Anzovin began posting comedic Daf Reactions videos on the social media platform TikTok concerning her studies in Talmud. The material for the videos were drawn from the Daf Yomi (daily folio) study cycle of the Babylonian Talmud, a study schedule that requires 7.5 years' of daily study. The clips unexpectedly gained popularity and Anzovin's audience appears to not be limited by familiarity with Talmud or even Jewishness. [7] [8] [4] Anzovin describes her personal Talmud study as consisting of learning on Sefaria, an online open source, free content, digital library of Jewish texts, and listening to online classes offered by Rabbanit Michelle Cohen Farber, who has led Daf Yomi classes for women in Israel. [9] Anzovin attributed her motivations for studying to hearing Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks speak about Daf Yomi, and as a response to a rise in antisemitism in the United States. [10] [11]
The general Jewish community response to Anzovin's Daf Reactions videos featured praise that the Talmudic text was being made available to those who previously could not access the material and to those modern Jewish audiences who could now find the text of the Talmud relevant. [12] [13] Anzovin's reception among Orthodox Jews was mixed and featured some criticism from those who viewed her efforts as disrespecting the formality typically associated with traditional Talmud study, nevertheless, other Orthodox Jews praised her work and material. [6] [14] In 2022, Anzovin was announced as the artist in residence at Moishe House. [3] [15] Following her early success with Daf Reactions, Anzovin joined the Jewish Speakers Bureau [16] and has been invited as a guest speaker to various Jewish communities in the United States. [17] [18] [19]
In 2024, Miriam was part of the second cohort of the Digital Storytellers Lab for her project Jewish Lore Reactions [20] and was announced as one of 4 artist chosen for the 2024–2025 CJP and JArts Community Creative Fellowship [21] cohort.
Also in 2024, Daf Reactions videos were showcased in Sex: Jewish Positions, an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam. [22]
Anzovin was born to an American Jewish family in Englewood, New Jersey and was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. The middle of three children, Anzovin and her family joined Orthodox Judaism and she attended Chabad day school from grades 6 to 8. [25]
The Mishnah or the Mishna is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first work of rabbinic literature, with the oldest surviving material dating to the 6th to 7th centuries CE.
The Gemara is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aramaic word גמרא and rooted in the Semitic word ג-מ-ר (gamar), which means "to finish" or "complete". Initially, the Gemara was transmitted orally and not permitted to be written down. However, after Judah the Prince compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE, rabbis from Babylonia and the Land of Israel extensively studied the work. Their discussions were eventually documented in a series of books, which would come to be known as the Gemara. The Gemara, when combined with the Mishnah, forms the full Talmud.
Daf Yomi is a daily regimen of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud is covered in sequence. A daf, or blatt in Yiddish, consists of both sides of the page. Under this regimen, the entire Talmud is completed, one day at a time, in a cycle of approximately seven and a half years. As of today, January 2, 2025, the study is of Tractate Sanhedrin, page 16.
Yehuda Meir Shapiro was a prominent Polish Hasidic rabbi and rosh yeshiva, also known as the Lubliner Rav. He is noted for his promotion of the Daf Yomi study program in 1923, and establishing the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in 1930.
Siyum HaShas is a celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi program, a roughly seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud are covered in sequence – one page per day. The first Daf Yomi cycle began on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684 ; the thirteenth cycle concluded on 4 January 2020 and the fourteenth cycle began the following day, to be concluded on 7 June 2027. The Siyum HaShas marks both the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the next, and is characterized by celebratory speeches, as well as singing and dancing. The next day, the new cycle begins again.
Off the derech is a Yeshiva-English expression used to describe the state of a Jew who has left an Orthodox way of life or community, and whose new lifestyle is secular, non-Jewish, or of a non-Orthodox form of Judaism, as part of a contemporary social phenomenon tied to the digital, postmodern and post-postmodern eras. In its broadest sense it can also include those changing to a milder form of Orthodoxy. Despite the term's pejorative and controversially dichotomic and definitive nature, it has become popular in use among Orthodox people, is found in mainstream literature, and has also been reclaimed by some OTD individuals.
Henry Abramson is a Ashkenazi historian who is the current dean of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences at Touro College in Flatbush, New York. Before that, he served as the Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Touro College South in Miami. Both are part of the Touro University System. He is notable for his teachings on Jewish history and Judaism as a religion.
Hadran is a short prayer recited upon the completion of study of a tractate of the Talmud or a Seder of Mishnah. It is also the name of the scholarly discourse delivered at a siyum masechet, the ceremony celebrating the completion of study of a Talmudic tractate.
Salvador Alejandro Litvak is a Chilean-American filmmaker, author and social media influencer. He has written and directed two theatrically released feature films, When Do We Eat? (2006) and Saving Lincoln (2013). As the Accidental Talmudist, Litvak shares Jewish wisdom with over one million followers on his Facebook page and hosts AT Daily, a Talmud study show on Facebook Live and YouTube. His first book, "Let My People Laugh: The Greatest Jewish Jokes of All Time!" was released by Skyhorse Publishing in November, 2024.
Ilana Kurshan is an American-Israeli author who lives in Jerusalem. She is best known for her memoir of Talmud study amidst life as a single woman, a married woman, and a mother, If All the Seas Were Ink.
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese and Hong Kong counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app or the web.
Sandra Lawson is an American rabbi and the first director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. She previously served as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Lawson became the first openly gay, female, and black rabbi in the world in 2018. She is a veteran, vegan, sociologist, personal trainer, food activist, weightlifter, author and musician.
Dirshu is an Orthodox Jewish international organization whose goal is to strengthen and encourage Torah study. Founded in 1997, the organization produces study cycles, sponsors shiurim, furnishes and grades tests, and offers financial incentives to individuals and groups to learn and master Talmud, Halakha, and Mussar texts. It has also published new editions of traditional Jewish texts, and sponsored major gatherings to celebrate the completion of its study cycles. As of 2018, more than 150,000 people have participated in its programs, which have spread to 26 countries on five continents.
Rabbanit Michelle Cohen Farber is the first woman to lead a Daf Yomi, a multi-year Jewish Talmud study cycle traditionally reserved for men. The women's Daf Yomi led by Farber celebrated its first Siyum HaShas at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on January 4–5, 2020. Her study group meets at her home in Raanana, Israel, although the classes are recorded and circulated throughout the world on numerous platforms, including YouTube and Spotify.
Eitan Bernath is an American celebrity chef, entertainer, author, social media influencer, and entrepreneur.
There are reports of TikTok censoring political content related to China and other countries as well as content from minority creators. TikTok says that its initial content moderation policies, many of which are no longer applicable, were aimed at reducing divisiveness and were not politically motivated.
TikTok food trends are specific food recipes and food-related fads on the social media platform TikTok. This content amassed popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that many were inclined to eat at home while simultaneously turning to social media as a form of entertainment. While some TikTok users share their diets and recipes, others expand their brand or image on TikTok through step-by-step videos of easy and popular recipes. Users often refer to food-related content as "FoodTok."
BookTok is a subcommunity on the app TikTok that focuses on books and literature. Creators make videos reviewing, discussing, and joking about the books they read. These books range in genre, but many creators tend to focus on young adult fiction, young adult fantasy, and romance. The community is cited with impacting the publishing industry and book sales. The creators in this community are also known as BookTokers.
Libs of TikTok is a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent. Raichik uses the accounts to repost content created by left-wing and LGBT people on TikTok, and on other social-media platforms, often with hostile, mocking, or derogatory commentary. The accounts promote hate speech and transphobia, and spread false claims, especially relating to medical care of transgender children. The Twitter account, also known by the handle @LibsofTikTok, has over 3.5 million followers as of September 2024 and has become influential among American conservatives and the political right. Libs of TikTok's social-media accounts have received several temporary suspensions and a permanent suspension from TikTok.
Miriam Malnik-Ezagui is an American nurse and TikToker known for making videos about her life and experiences as an Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn, New York. Malnik-Ezagui is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Lilly Appelbaum Malnik.
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