Alicia Jo Rabins

Alicia Jo Rabins is a performer, musician, composer, poet, writer, and Jewish scholar based in Portland, Oregon. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in the power of language, which she views as a means of transcending human limitations of time and space. Rabins' academic background is extensive, holding degrees from Barnard College, Warren Wilson College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, alongside studies at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She has also contributed to academia as an instructor at Portland State University. Her creative output spans music, poetry, and performance art, often engaging with Jewish identity and experience. Rabins has received recognition for her work, including the 2015 Honickman Book Prize.

Alicia Jo Rabins possesses a diverse artistic and academic portfolio. She is recognized as a performer, musician, singer, composer, poet, writer, and Jewish scholar. Her educational journey includes a B.A. in English and creative writing from Barnard College, an M.F.A. in poetry from Warren Wilson College, and an M.A. in Jewish gender and women's studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Further deepening her scholarship, she spent two years studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. This rich educational foundation informs her multifaceted creative work.

Central to Rabins' artistic philosophy is the profound significance of language. She articulates a belief that words hold a unique power, suggesting they represent humanity's closest approach to immortality, unconstrained by death or geography and capable of transmitting meaning across generations and communities. This perspective is evident in her performance work, such as "A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff," which she has presented at various venues including Portland State University and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Her musical background includes an eight-year tenure playing violin in the rock-klezmer band Golem.

Rabins' creative output includes musical recordings such as "Sugar Shack" (2003), "Girls in Trouble" (2009), "Half You Half Me" (2011), and "Open the Ground" (2015). She has also ventured into film with "A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff: The Film." Her written works include the books "Divinity School" and "Fruit Geode," as well as the writing "A Passover Story." Her contributions have garnered attention from various media outlets, including The New York Times, Literary Mama, the Jewish Women's Archive, Lilith, The Forward, Tablet, and Oregon Public Broadcasting. In 2015, she was honored with the Honickman Book Prize.

“Words may be the closest we get to immortality as humans. Death has no power over those words. Geography has no power over them. They transmit something beyond any one, or any community's, lifetime.”