WHO?
About Shpitzle:
Shpitzle is the pseudonym for the blogger and cartoonist Frieda Vizel, who wrote under this pen name when she lived in the insular Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel. Frieda grew up in a very large pious family where secular education was minimal and marriages were arranged. When she was twenty-one years old and already a mother to a baby boy, she began a blog about the life of Hasidic women and adopted “shpitzle”, the name of her scarf headgear, as her nom de plume to guard her identity. Eventually, she felt she could no longer live within the constraints of the community and after a lot of struggle, left the community with her son in tow. Frieda is now a full time mom and part time graduate student and compulsive doodler.
Click here to connect with Frieda via Facebook.
Click here for Frieda’s guided tours of Hasidic Williamsburg.
Frieda Vizel
A bit more about Frieda in Tablet magazine: Breaking From Hasidism, Online
wow shpitzele i can’t believe that u finelly decided to write a little about your past, i remember u wrote somewhere that u don’t think u will ever write about your past now finely you did it!
Mazel Tov Shpitzele for going on your own. That group can mess up your mind. Glad you escaped with Kiryas Joel, he’d be ruined had your husband gotten custody. The author of the book UNorthordoxn did same…Jenny(?)…Debbie(?) Feldman was her name.
In these circles, you are the most important social commentator of our time. We are lucky to have you.
You know, Frieda, after all that time reading and posting on Unpious and seeing your comments on various Facebook friends of mine, I did not realize you’re Shpitzle.
Congrats on a very talented site.
J.
if this is your real pic, you are very pretty.. You look a 100 times better than I imagined when I used to email you when you were spitzl and I had my SG blog
Frieda,
You don’t seem to have an email on your site. Could you please drop me a line? I have a project for which I want some New Yorker-style doodles.
Thank you
Larry Yudelson
Editorial Director
Ben Yehuda Press