When We're Born We Forget Everything

ONE OF HEY ALMA’S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026

“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

“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

“[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

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

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