Miriam Anzovin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | USA |
| 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]
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. [22]
The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.
A yeshiva is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha, while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The studying is usually done through daily shiurim as well as in study pairs called chavrusas. Chavrusa-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva.
Torah study is the study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature, and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts. According to Rabbinic Judaism, the study is done for the purpose of the mitzvah ("commandment") of Torah study itself.
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.
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.
A siyum ("completion"), in Judaism, occasionally spelled siyyum, is the completion of any established unit of Torah study. The most common units are a single volume of the Talmud, or of Mishnah, but there are other units of learning that may lead to a siyum.
Lilith is an independent, Jewish-American, feminist non-profit magazine that has been issued quarterly since 1976. The magazine features award-winning investigative reports, first-person accounts, entertainment reviews, fiction and poetry, art and photography. Topics range from rabbinic sexual misconduct, to new rituals and celebrations, to deconstructing Jewish-American stereotypes, to understanding the Jewish stake in abortion rights.
Feldheim Publishers is an American Orthodox Jewish publisher of Torah books and literature. Its extensive catalog of titles includes books on Jewish law, Torah, Talmud, Jewish lifestyle, Shabbat and Jewish holidays, Jewish history, biography, and kosher cookbooks. It also publishes children's books. The company's headquarters is located in New York, with publishing and sales divisions in Jerusalem. Its president is Yitzchak Feldheim.
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.
Rachel Adler is Professor Emerita of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at Hebrew Union College, at the Los Angeles campus.
Shmuel Herzfeld is an American Orthodox rabbi. He is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Elimelech. He previously served as the Senior Rabbi of Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue in Washington, D.C. and before that as Associate Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. He is a teacher, lecturer, activist, and author.
Henry Abramson is an American historian who is the dean of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush, New York. Before that, he served as the Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Touro College's Miami branch. He is notable for his teachings on Jewish history and Judaism as a religion.
Women rabbis are individual Jewish women who have studied Jewish Law and received rabbinical ordination. Women rabbis are prominent in Progressive Jewish denominations, however, the subject of women rabbis in Orthodox Judaism is more complex. Although a significant number of Orthodox women have been ordained as rabbis, many major Orthodox Jewish communities and institutions do not accept the change. In an alternative approach, other Orthodox Jewish institutions train women as Torah scholars for various Jewish religious leadership roles. These roles typically involve training women as religious authorities in Jewish Law but without formal rabbinic ordination, instead, alternate titles are used. Yet, despite this alteration in title, these women are often perceived as equivalent to ordained rabbis. Since the 1970s, over 1,200 Jewish women have been ordained as rabbis.
Norman Solomon is a British rabbi, professor, and scholar in the field of Jewish studies and Jewish–Christian relations.
Malke Bina is the founder and first teacher of Matan Women's Institute for Torah Studies. She has a master's degree in Hebrew Bible from Yeshiva University. She is married to a rabbi and is called by the term Rabbanit, which is less common in Modern Orthodox circles. Bina does not consider herself a rabbi and, at a 2004 conference of Orthodox Jewish Feminists, emphasized her focus on Talmud study. She was interviewed by JOFA in 2006 and serves on its Council of Advisers. She also pioneered women's reading of Megillat Esther on Purim.
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.
Sandra Lawson is a 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.
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 noted its Siyum HaShas at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on January 4–5, 2020. Her study group meets at her home in Raanana, Israel.
Dina Brawer is an Orthodox woman rabbi and the founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance division in the United Kingdom. Brawer received her rabbinical ordination at Yeshivat Maharat in the United States and is the first Orthodox woman rabbi to serve in the UK. Brawer's work at JOFA UK focuses on women's rights in Orthodox Judaism and the religious education of adult women in Orthodox communities in the UK.
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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