S2E1 Alicia Jo Rabins: Jewish Art & Jewish Creativity

We're back for Season 2 of the Genesis,  continuing to explore Jewish identity and culture. In addition to now weekly conversations, Season 2 will feature weekly-ish reflections from Rabbi Josh on a variety of Jewish topics.  Alicia Jo Rabins is a Jewish writer, musician, composer, performer and Torah teacher. She combines words, music, ritual and performance to create works exploring the intersection of ancient wisdom texts, feminism, and everyday life. Alicia Jo tours internationally as a musician and performer; her work has appeared at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Joe's Pub.  Her collections of poetry, , Divinity School and , Fruit Geode have been recognized widely for their skill and beauty - the latter  was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award. Her book Even God Had Bad Parenting Days contains useful and insightful personal essays about early parenthood and Jewish spirituality.  As a musician and performer, Alicia Jo is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, which she and I go into in some depth. It's an indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of Biblical women with accompanying curriculum rich in Jewish sources. Her 2014 play A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff is a uniquely Jewish take on the financial fraudster and was adapted into an award-winning independent feature film and we end up talking about that, too. Enjoy!