Two outstanding groups of acapella singers will offer a combination of riveting harmonies and uplifting solos. S’madar is the pluralistic Jewish women’s group of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel and Tizmoret is in its seventeenth year as Queens College Hillel’s professional coed a cappella group.
With Girls in Trouble, poet and multi-instrumentalist Alicia Jo Rabins mines dark stories of Biblical women, exploring the hidden places where their complicated lives overlap with her own. The result is an album of fully orchestrated songs, both intimate and wide-ranging, with upright bass, drums, accordion, and layered electric guitars.
A classically trained violinist since the age of three, Alicia grew up practicing Bach and sneaking out to Baltimore punk shows. She began touring at eighteen, when she fell in love with traditional fiddle music, then traveled to Jerusalem to immerse herself in a new realm– the study of ancient languages and texts. For two years, she absorbed the stories and rituals of the Torah and Kabbalah. Returning to the States, Alicia attempted to resume her regular life, but found herself haunted still by the ancient stories she had encountered in her studies– especially those of Biblical women.
Realizing their stories echoed with the traditional ballads she loved, Alicia began writing her first songs, taking these Biblical women as her subjects. As she composed, harmonizing quietly into her laptop so as not to wake her roommates, Alicia’s love of American folk and underground rock fused indelibly with her knowledge of the Hebrew Bible: Girls in Trouble was born.
When bassist Aaron Hartman (Old Time Relijun, K Records) overheard Alicia describing the project in a Brooklyn bar, he introduced himself, and soon became an integral part of Girls in Trouble. Alicia wrote, arranged, sang the songs, and performed the string parts, but it was Aaron who expanded Girls in Trouble into a full band. Three months before the release of their debut album, Alicia and Aaron wed; since then, the full band has toured across the US and Europe, sleeping on floors and playing a range of venues, from The Smell in Los Angeles to the Great Synagogue in Stockholm, Sweden.
Girls in Trouble recorded their second album at Vacation Island Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with wunderkind engineer Matt Boynton. Half You Half Me retains the emotional vulnerability and poetic focus of Girls in Trouble’s self-titled debut while broadening the band’s sound into eclectic, atmospheric landscapes. In the first album, the women were quiet heroes; on Half You Half Me, ambiguous stories deepen, twist, and blossom into the complex terrain between right and wrong, between you and me.
High school students will square off against one another in an open forum of original free verse poetry recitation.
Only High School students may perform, but all are welcome to attend.
Two outstanding groups of acapella singers will offer a combination of riveting harmonies and uplifting solos. S’madar is the pluralistic Jewish women’s group of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel and Tizmoret is in its seventeenth year as Queens College Hillel’s professional coed a cappella group.
With Girls in Trouble, poet and multi-instrumentalist Alicia Jo Rabins mines dark stories of Biblical women, exploring the hidden places where their complicated lives overlap with her own. The result is an album of fully orchestrated songs, both intimate and wide-ranging, with upright bass, drums, accordion, and layered electric guitars.
A classically trained violinist since the age of three, Alicia grew up practicing Bach and sneaking out to Baltimore punk shows. She began touring at eighteen, when she fell in love with traditional fiddle music, then traveled to Jerusalem to immerse herself in a new realm– the study of ancient languages and texts. For two years, she absorbed the stories and rituals of the Torah and Kabbalah. Returning to the States, Alicia attempted to resume her regular life, but found herself haunted still by the ancient stories she had encountered in her studies– especially those of Biblical women.
Realizing their stories echoed with the traditional ballads she loved, Alicia began writing her first songs, taking these Biblical women as her subjects. As she composed, harmonizing quietly into her laptop so as not to wake her roommates, Alicia’s love of American folk and underground rock fused indelibly with her knowledge of the Hebrew Bible: Girls in Trouble was born.
When bassist Aaron Hartman (Old Time Relijun, K Records) overheard Alicia describing the project in a Brooklyn bar, he introduced himself, and soon became an integral part of Girls in Trouble. Alicia wrote, arranged, sang the songs, and performed the string parts, but it was Aaron who expanded Girls in Trouble into a full band. Three months before the release of their debut album, Alicia and Aaron wed; since then, the full band has toured across the US and Europe, sleeping on floors and playing a range of venues, from The Smell in Los Angeles to the Great Synagogue in Stockholm, Sweden.
Girls in Trouble recorded their second album at Vacation Island Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with wunderkind engineer Matt Boynton. Half You Half Me retains the emotional vulnerability and poetic focus of Girls in Trouble’s self-titled debut while broadening the band’s sound into eclectic, atmospheric landscapes. In the first album, the women were quiet heroes; on Half You Half Me, ambiguous stories deepen, twist, and blossom into the complex terrain between right and wrong, between you and me.
The Bulletproof Stockings is a Chassidic rock band which plays for women-only events. The short documentary film traces how the band came to be and how the band members bridge the gap between keeping their faith and following their dreams. The film will be accompanied by a talkback from Perl Wolfe and Dalia Shusterman, the band members.
New historical research suggests that when the rabbis formulated the rule exempting women from time bound, positive commandments (m. Kid. 1:7), they were not attempting to regulate women’s time nor were they offering accommodations to a preconceived notion of women’s schedules.These new findings call into question the explanatory value of traditional explanations for the rule and consider the implications this new take will have for contemporary Jewish feminists.
Sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.
The state of marriage in the Orthodox tradition poses a variety of challenges for feminists. Panelists will explore two of these challenges, their impact on the general population and proposed solutions. Susan Weiss will focus on the current state of marriage laws in Israel and the Israeli religious courts' monopoly on conducting and terminating marriages. Dr. Melanie Landau will focus on the unequal nature of kiddushin (betrothal) and the legal and social consequences for women.
Pinpoint of Light documents a couple’s first two years of marriage, their longing for a child, and the terrifying medical issues they face on that journey. The husband is the filmmaker, and as he uncovers his and his new wife’s moments of fear, hope, joy, and disappointment, we are gripped by the honesty and the poignancy of the film. The film records how Judaism serves as a source of strength for both of them as they travel uncharted territory.
Sponsored by Linda and Morris Shamah.
What is the state of feminism in the Sephardic community? Explore the challenges and vision for progress in this community. Panelists will address these questions and more.
Sponsored by Debbie Pine and Mark Orenshein
The Rabbi’s Daughter is a documentary film that grew out of the director’s own experience as a rabbi’s daughter who struggled with the public role that thrust her into and who eventually left observance. She documents the lives of three other rabbis’ daughters who are in similar situations, their relationships with their families and communities, and the inner tensions they deal with. The session features a talkback with the director, Racheli Vasserman, who will introduce the film and take questions at the end.
Sponsored by Mosaic of Westchester - Enriching our Jewish Community through LGBTQ Inclusion.
How can the Orthodox community be more inclusive of the LGBT members of the community? How can Orthodox feminists and Orthodox LGBTs work together as allies? How can parents of LGBT children and others create a more inclusive, open and welcoming environment for LGBT individuals and their families? This session will explore the ways in which the feminist and LGBT communities can learn from each other and work together to create a more inclusive Orthodox community.
Sponsored by Susan Fader and Lawrence Krule in honor of their friend Steve Klitsner.
A Tale of a Woman and a Robe is a series of film clips exploring the difficult process that women converts go through as they ritually immerse in front of an all-male panel of rabbis. The clips, which dramatize the women’s experiences of privacy and gaze under the watchful eye of the male bet din, include interviews with three leading Orthodox rabbis in Israel. The session will be accompanied by a panel discussion with the director, Nurit Jacobs Yinon, using these clips as a launching point to discuss the dynamics of women’s conversion.
