Hi there.

Until I was 25, I lived in the Satmar Hasidic community. This experience – and my interest in how society works on a systemic level – inform my work. I draw from all sorts of disciplines, like urban studies, history, sociology, and cultural criticism.

My main job, my bread-and-butter, is WALKING TOURS in Jewish Brooklyn. I love giving tours, but my tours are so important to me because they serve as a jumping-off point from which I explore larger creative and journalistic projects.

I host a lively YOUTUBE CHANNEL on Hasidic society. I put up interviews with interesting people, coverage of holidays, food, kosher technology and more. My videos also air on JEWISH LIFE TELEVISION.

I also write. I have been writing online from when I first connected to the web as a 21 year old Hasidic woman. Some of my work has been published. But most of my work is on this BLOG, which goes back to 2008. Many posts are on Hasidic society, forming a kind of street anthropology on an under-studied subculture in NYC. Other posts are deeply personal. I also doodle occasionally, and on my blog I have a sizable archive of cartoons and commentary. I am in the process of writing a book and now looking for an agent.

I am grateful to have received the NYC Women’s Fund for Media award and to be a fellow at the Mandel Institute and the Digital Storytellers Lab.

Many thanks to some amazing talents for making my projects happen.

Valeria Di Matteo
website developer, coding magician with better taste than any ordinary magician

Shannon Kuta Kelly
blog editor, social media manager, wonderful poet in her own right

Tayla Olandim
illustrator, artist with so much soul, Hasidic mapmaker from far-flung Brazil