About this Event
Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Tuesday, May 26 at 7:00 PM when Alicia Jo Rabins comes to the store to share her new memoir When We're Born We Forget Everything. Alicia will be joined in conversation by Rabbi Adina Allen and will sign copies of her book after the presentation.
to order a copy of When We're Born We Forget Everything.
From the creator of the internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter project Girls in Trouble, a memoir following her journey from a secular Jewish childhood to becoming a modern queer woman owning ancient teachings and finding her own meanings in them, refracted through feminist interpretations of the lives of Biblical women.
“Alicia Jo Rabins writes as if she’s in conversation with the divine itself. . . .This isn’t merely a book to be read—it’s a scripture for the searching heart, a reminder that the border between the human and the holy is, and always has been, porous.”
—Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
As a self-described ‘90s suburban high school weirdo, Alicia Jo Rabins spent her time practicing violin and smoking cigarettes behind the mall while secretly dreaming of setting out on a spiritual quest no one around her seemed to understand. She often found herself drawn to the more ritualistic and rigorous Judaism that her parents had abandoned to assimilate and “become American.” In college, a chance meeting led her on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to study rabbinical texts (and play bluegrass fiddle on the street for cash). But that two years of immersing herself in traditional observance was only the start of a journey full of twists and turns.
When We’re Born We Forget Everything follows Alicia’s relentless, often embarrassing, sometimes enlightening search for the sacred in everyday life as she tours America playing with a klezmer-punk band, falls in and out of love, scrapes through the initiations of motherhood, and witnesses the beauty—and danger—of mysticism. Rabins braids this personal narrative with the hidden stories of biblical women, uncovering a path of queer identity, feminist awakening, and spiritual self-invention. This lyrical, searching memoir is a meditation on longing, lineage, and what it takes to find meaning in a fractured world.
is a writer, musician, and Torah teacher. She is the author of two poetry books, Divinity School (APR/Honickman First Book Prize) and Fruit Geode (a finalist for the Jewish Book Award). As a violinist and singer-songwriter, Rabins tours internationally with Girls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah, and is the writer and star of the indie feature film, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which the Atlantic calls "a blessing". She lives with her husband, two kids, and way too many houseplants in Portland, Oregon.
is a spiritual leader, writer, and visionary educator pioneering a contemporary Jewish path grounded in the transformative power of creativity. As Founding Rabbi and President of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), she is shaping a movement that places creativity at the heart of Jewish life. Adina is the author of The Place of All Possibility: Cultivating Creativity Through Ancient Jewish Wisdom (Ayin, 2024). She is a recipient of the Covenant Foundation’s 2018 Pomegranate Prize, was named one of Moment Magazine’s “50 Jewish Innovators of the Past 50 Years". Ordained through Hebrew College’s pluralistic rabbinic program, Adina lives in Berkeley, California with her spouse, musician and JSP founding CEO Jeff Kasowitz, and their two children.
THIS EVENT is free but registration is requested. Registration ends at 6:30 pm on May26.
BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.
DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.
WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.
WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.
PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.
OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Mrs Dalloway's, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, United States
USD 0.00
