Courtesy of Riki Rose
By Rukhl Schaechter
November 13, 2024
Most Hasidim who leave the community adopt English as their lingua franca, reserving Yiddish only for visiting relatives or the neighborhood in which they grew up.
Social media influencer Riki Rose is different. Raised in the cloistered Satmar community of Williamsburg, she left that world in her twenties, but didn’t abandon the Yiddish language that had permeated her environment since infancy. Within the past ten years she’s appeared in dozens of Yiddish comedies, cooking shows and concerts, gaining a loyal following on Instagram.
Riki recently released a Yiddish song she composed, describing how she deals with her occasional bouts of anxiety and depression. “Otem arayn un otem aroys” (“Breathe in and breathe out),” she coaches us — and herself. The recording was produced and arranged by Shloime Bernstein.
Last August, months before recording the song, she performed it at the Yidish Vokh retreat in Copake, New York, accompanying herself on the guitar. The audience was visibly excited as they swayed to the rock beat.“Ri-ki!” people yelled out, giving the performance the unique feeling of attending a Yiddish rock concert.
In an interview she gave to Frieda Vizel — a tour guide of the Hasidic neighborhood in Williamsburg — Riki said that she had always been eager to perform before audiences. She was limited, though, by the religious restrictions of kol ishe, which prohibit women from performing before men due to modesty laws.
The recording of the song is now on YouTube, followed by the lyrics in Yiddish and in English translation.
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