About

Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, composer, performer and Torah teacher. She combines words, music, ritual and performance to create works of experimental beauty exploring the intersection of ancient wisdom texts, feminism, and everyday life. Rabins tours internationally as a musician and performer; she has performed and presented at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, and in countries including Sweden, Guatemala and Estonia.

Rabins’ spiritual memoir, When We’re Born We Forget Everything, was published by Schocken Books in March 2026; in a starred review, BookPage calls it “a balm against all the hurt places of humanity.” Her debut collection of poetry, Divinity School, won the APR/Honickman First Book Prize; her second poetry collection, Fruit Geode, was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award. She is also the author of Even God Had Bad Parenting Days, a collection of short personal essays about early parenthood and Jewish spirituality, and Hallelujah: The Story of Leonard Cohen, a children’s picture book (illustrated by Gene Pendon).

As a musician and performer, Rabins is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of Biblical women with accompanying curriculum (now being made into an indie web series!) and A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which began as a one-woman chamber-rock opera and was adapted into an award-winning independent feature film.

A Jewish educator, DIY bar/bat/b’nai mitzvah tutor, culture-bearer and ritualist for over twenty-five years, Rabins is passionate about progressive Jewish education. She tours internationally as a violinist, singer, lecturer and performer from her home base in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, two kids, and way too many houseplants.