When We're Born We Forget Everything

MOST ANTICIPATED: HEY ALMA, AUTOSTRADDLE

“Seeing the world through Alicia Jo Rabins’ eyes is like peering through a diaphanous veil—everything from college hookups to CD jewel cases to fiddle busking in suburbia are rendered with a sacred glow.”
—GennaRose Nethercott, author of Thistlefoot

“Raucous, entertaining, and always authentic, When We’re Born We Forget Everything filters the pilgrimage narrative through a punk aesthetic, and what emerges on the other side gloriously upends the received strictures and obligations of that which we’ve deemed ‘holy,’ and uncovers along the way a beguiling treatise on love. Throughout, When We’re Born We Forget Everything had me plotzing with joy.”
—Matthew Gavin Frank, author of Submersed

“With the lyricism of a poet and the courage of a seeker, [Rabins] transforms the fragments of a modern life—motherhood, music, faith, desire—into a meditation on what it means to awaken to the sacred hidden in the ordinary. I loved this book, it is a wonder.”
—Nina McConigley, author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

“Feminist-spelunking in the depths of the patriarchy, Alicia Jo Rabins illuminates the sacred days and nights of the art life.”
—Jolie Holland

“From smoking cigarettes behind the mall as a ‘90s suburban high school weirdo to a pilgrimage to study rabbinical texts to touring America with a klezmer-punk band, this memoir follows an acclaimed queer Jewish singer-songwriter through a quest for spiritual re-invention.”
—Autostraddle, “Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for March 2026”

“Spiritual quester and acclaimed creator of Girls in Trouble, Rabins is a writer and performer and poet — and now a memoirist. Run don’t walk!”
—Book and Film Globe

“Across mediums, [Rabins’] subject is an assemblage of feminism, ancient wisdoms like the Old Testament, and her experience as a queer woman devoted to studying the Torah. Her new memoir, When We’re Born We Forget Everything, is perhaps Rabins’s most direct approach to her muse yet.”
—Portland Monthly

“Rabins invites readers from all walks of life along on her quest for enlightenment.”
—Out South Florida

“Rabins’s unique insights emerge through her empha­sis on seek­ing as spir­i­tu­al prac­tice. . . . Rabins often orga­nizes the chap­ters of When We’re Born around a sin­gle image, defin­ing moment, or par­tic­u­lar insight from her life, then deft­ly braids these inci­dents into con­ver­sa­tion with Jew­ish tra­di­tions. . . . Compelling.”
—Julie R. Enszer, Jewish Book Council

“[Rabins’ memoir] interweaves her narrative of queer, feminist and spiritual self-realization with the stories of powerful biblical women.”
—Hey Alma, “27 Jewish Books We’re Looking Forward to in 2026”

“A lyrical, multilayered narrative. . . . The prose is musical, expansive and full of wonder. [It] is a deeply human book that locates the sacred firmly within earthly personhood. . . . [Rabins moves] through life looking into the hearts of the people and places around her, and finding beauty and holiness to a dazzling and psychedelic degree. While this may be a book of special significance to the Jewish community, in all the forms it can take, When We’re Born We Forget Everything can also be held as a balm against all the hurt places of humanity.”
—Anna Christensen, BookPage (starred review)

“Rabins’s memoir explores her Jewish identity and braids it with her musical journey and spiritual seeking. She searches for her place in Judaism, finding solace in feminist interpretations of Biblical women and with kindred souls.”
—Jaime Herndon, Exploring Judaism

“In When We’re Born We Forget Everything, poet and musician Alicia Jo Rabins shares her journey of creating a world of music, love, study, language and care, ultimately finding her makom, her true and fitting place. She remembered everything. We are the enriched beneficiaries.”
—Rabbi Ellen Lippmann

“With the propulsive beat of her old-time fiddling, Alicia Jo Rabins’ When We’re Born, We Forget Everything exposes the heart of a great Jewish leader and her development as an educator, rebbe, and musician. These captivating vignettes offer deep insight into Rabins, the Jewish community, and our contemporary world.”
—Rabbi Burt Visotzky, Jewish Theological Seminary

“Engaging. . . . A thoughtful, tender memoir.”
—Kirkus

“Invigorating. . . . Readers drawn to stories of spiritual seeking will cherish this.”
—Publishers Weekly