Bubby’s Kitchen: Telling Our Stories, Keeping Our Courage

In this special episode of Voices of Emanu El, Cantor Rollin Simmons sits down with her longtime friend, Cantor Shira Ginsburg, to talk about Bubby’s Kitchen—Shira’s acclaimed one-woman musical born from her family’s Holocaust partisan story and a fifth-year cantorial school recital that refused to stay “just” a project. Together they explore how growing up in her grandparents’ home, hearing their stories around the table, and later reclaiming those memories on stage shaped Shira’s artistry and sense of purpose.

They discuss transforming liturgy and Yiddish song into original theater, and the universal way audiences see their own grandparents and family stories reflected in this very Jewish story.