User:Invisiboy42293/Miriam Anzovin

Miriam Anzovin
Born	(1985-03-12) March 12, 1985 Englewood, New Jersey
Occupation(s)	Comedian, internet personality, podcaster, activist
Known for	Daf Reacts (TikTok series)
TikTok information
Page	Miriam Anzovin
Followers	27K
Likes	251K
Last updated: April 18, 2023
Website	miriamanzovin.com

Miriam Anzovin (born March 12, 1985) is an American TikToker, comedian, podcaster, and activist. She is best known for her TikTok series Daf Reacts, in which she summarizes Talmud pages from the daily Daf Yomi cycle in a humorous millennial fashion. Her videos first went viral in January 2022 and were widely discussed by Jewish media outlets and on social media, being both praised and condemned for her irreverent approach to the text.

Early life

Anzovin was born in Englewood, New Jersey and grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts.

• was raised Orthodox Jewish by a baal teshuva family
• middle of three children
• moved from secular to Orthodox Judaism by age 11
• attended a Chabad middle school; was one of only two Chabad families in the area
• chose to homeschool herself for high school; practiced hitbodedut to cope with loneliness and isolation
• as a teenager, would read the weekly parshah to her family and make them laugh with her humorous commentary
• attended the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she received a degree in Jewish studies
• in college, suffered from low self-esteem, to the point hat she would hide her Jewish star necklace out of the belief that others would "think that Jews were ugly, like her"
• left Orthodoxy when she was 21, out of growing discomfort with halachic restrictions on women, learning about issues like the agunah crisis, and a series of personal and family misfortune. Became an atheist before giving up Orthodox practice entirely

Career

• Beginning in 2017, Anzovin worked for Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Federation serving the Greater Boston area, as a visual artist and content creator, primarily for its website JewishBoston.com. She also hosted a podcast, Vibe of the Tribe, where she first started approaching Jewish tradition, literature, and history in an entertaining way.

Daf Reacts

Reception and controversy

• • "Anzovin hair-tosses, speed-talks and eyebrow-pops through her homemade recaps, distilling the daily dose to its sauciest moments."
  • "Anzovin’s very online breakdowns"
  • preps daily for videos by listening to Rabbanit Michelle Cohen Farber's Daf Yomi podcast while doing her makeup in the morning, reading a summary from My Jewish Learning, reading the text on Sefaria, and discussing it with her chavrusa on Google Chat
  • "Sometimes it’s right there at the surface, the modern connection, or the kind of language I would use to describe the scenario in a millennial sense,” she says. “And sometimes you gotta dig a little harder to find it."
  • first became interested in Daf Yomi after hearing Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks discuss it in the middle of a cycle
  • was motivated to fully commit after the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing in December 2019, beginning her first cycle on January 5, 2020
  • "Every single day that I do the daf is my response to that, is my response to antisemitism, to Jew hatred."
  • "her coquettish affect (and occasional profanity) make them evoke the juicy conspiracy theories and brilliant life-hacks popular on TikTok"
  • mentions videos drawing negative comments
• • videos focus on humorous takes and stories from the Talmud
  • began studying Daf Yomi consistently in early 2020, and joined TikTok around the same time
  • initially joined TikTok to pass time and stay connected with people during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • in early December 2021, had the idea to "make a video for other people doing Daf Yomi with humorous takes as an in-joke, maybe with a millennial or Gen Z bent"
  • amassed thousands of followers, including in Israel, when her account was relatively new
  • has received some backlash, both for studying Talmud as a woman and for being irreverent about the text
  • in response, argues that this is her authentic reaction to Talmudic content, and that the Talmud itself can often be ridiculous and NSFW
  • has skipped making videos on some pages, in part because Talmudic content is sometimes too painful to make light of
  • does not see herself as a replacement for traditional Talmud study, merely as someone sharing her reactions and providing a potential intro to the topic
• • controversy over her videos made headlines in North America and Israel
  • detractors included Israeli Orthodox journalist and activist Avishai Grinzaig, who tweeted that her videos were "a disgrace" and "a particularly provocative and crude use of texts sacred to Judaism to rake in likes"
  • Anzovin's method of engagement is (according to article) part of a growing newer form of Jewish social media discourse using the language of shitposting and memes to discuss and critically analyze Torah
• • videos circulated across Jewish social media
  • first uploaded Daf Reactions videos in December 2021, went viral with video posted on January 21, 2022
  • praised for pedagogical innovation of mixing Talmudic language with modern slang
  • criticism for profanity and perceived disrespect of Talmud
• • Daf Reactions first went viral in January 2022 with a video on Mo'ed Katan 9, which discusses laws around women applying makeup
  • videos can take hours to produce
  • has joked that she is "the intersection of Sefaria and Sephora"
  • further inspiration came from doing a podcast episode in 2021, where she made her rabbi guests laugh while discussing Shabbat 110
  • has experienced misogynistic harassment due to her videos
• • posted first Daf Reactions in December 2021
  • videos open with Anzovin introducing the tractate being discussed
  • "records from her desk in her room at home surrounded by personal items, including a white stuffed doll wearing huge pink headphones. Viewers are invited to share comments and questions, which Anzovin promptly answers."
  • "her language is sometimes spicy and her delivery has more in common with Valley Girl speed speak than a Rabbinic sermon."
  • "sprinkles her posts with slang and humor that make her intellectually challenging topics accessible and unique."
  • posts Daf Reactions content to TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
  • broke with usual format for a video commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • introduction to Daf Yomi was through a CJP-sponsored “Lunch and Learn” program
  • began Daf Yomi when the cycle started on January 5, 2020, around the same time she joined TikTok
  • videos are three minutes long but can take several hours to prepare, and are recorded and edited within a day each
  • videos are "short, funny and didactic"
  • has received backlash from some religious Jews for perceived "desecration", based on her irreverent language and being a non-religious woman studying Talmud
  • calls these negative comments "truly horrific" and says, "The misogyny and hatred of my detractors, their fears? It only serves to fuel me more, because it means I’m doing something right,” she said.
• • "has her share of detractors, some of whom dislike her salty language when referencing sacred topics, others who disapprove of a woman weighing in on Torah."
  • “I’m not teaching it. I’m reacting to it in my authentic way, with a little millennial slang. If people want to learn a little more afterward, that’s great.”
  • "Anzovin was first drawn to the idea of Daf Yomi, the page-a-day Talmud study cycle, after hearing the late UK chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks speak about it during a “Lunch and Learn” program at the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, where she works as a visual artist and content producer for JewishBoston.com."
  • "Anzovin, who holds a degree in Judaic studies from the University of Massachusetts, listens to Rabbanit Michelle Farber’s Daf Yomi podcast and reads about it on MyJewishLearning.com. She then reads the text itself on Sefaria.org and goes over it with a study partner."
  • "It’s hours of preparation. Before I can say anything about it I have to actually learn it and let it roll it around in my mind. Then I can distill it down into what I want to say,” she said."
  • "Anzovin, who attended a Chabad Hasidic school through eighth grade and then was homeschooled until college, was formerly Orthodox but now identifies as an atheist."
  • “The thing that I believe in is the Jewish people. I often say I’m not ‘on the derech,’ on the path, but I’m there showing people where it is with a flashlight,” she said. “If people want to be observant, I support them entirely. I am not trying to influence anybody to say that my take on the Talmud is definitive. It’s not religious. It’s not spiritual. It’s about the intellectual heritage of my ancestors and our collective ancestors.”
  • criticism by Grinzaig
  • praise by Yair Rosenberg
  • Shalom Hartman Institute's David Zvi Kalman feels criticism of her is rooted in her being a woman
  • some critics have accused Anzovin of tiflut (rabbinic term for promiscuity)
  • "tens of thousands of followers on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram"
• • Anzovin is "among the most recently talked-about Daf Yomi spin-offs"
  • Rabbi Daniel Friedman, author and former rabbi of London's Hampstead Garden Suburb, has said of Anzovin, "Her style is probably not ideal. But I’ve no doubt now that many more people now know about Daf Yomi and Gemara due to her effort."
• • One of "5 Jewish TikTokers You Need to be Following" according to Rabbi Jason Miller writing for the Detroit Jewish News
  • began studying Daf Yomi in January 2020
  • opens each video with the motto "Shalom, Friends!"
  • "her modern, creative way of teaching" Daf Yomi
  • "Anzovin’s approach is to bring the sometimes bizarre stories of the Talmud to life by adapting them to  21st-century language, full of analogies and references to pop culture. The way she makes the ancient Talmud (written in Aramaic) accessible to the modern student is akin to retelling Shakespeare as a high school love drama set in the current period."

Personal life

• • lives in the Greater Boston area
  • has a Chihuahua named Sansa
• • experienced sexual assault and an abusive marriage
  • obtained an official get from a beit din, even though she was no longer religious at the time of her divorce, so as to avoid an agunah situation. This experience fueled her commitment to activism.
• • lives in Natick, Massachusetts
  • considers herself an atheist
  • her chavruta is a former colleague and close friend whom she connected with over Google Chat during the pandemic
  • "Anzovin agrees that today she could be considered an unaffiliated Jew, she openly identifies as an atheist because she wants Jews “who might have moments when they look inside themselves and no longer find Hashem” to know there are options to cutting themselves off completely from Judaism, that they can still learn, connect with Jewish thinking, and participate in Jewish cultural life."
• • lives in Natick, grew up in Amherst
  • self-described autodidact
  • was divorced in 2019