Written, created, and starring Shira Ginsburg and inspired by the heroic actions of resistance her grandparents took against the Nazis as Partisans as they survived years in the forests of Belarus on bravery, camaraderie and the sheer will to live, Bubby’s Kitchen is the story of one young woman’s struggle to live up to her grandparents’ incredible legacy.

As told in the Hollywood Blockbuster film ‘Defiance’ starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, 30,000 Jews came out of the forests at the end of WWII; Among them were Yudis and Motke Ginsburg, who with the Bielski and Iskra Partisan units, fought Nazis, blew up trains and bridges with handmade bombs, and created their own liberation before being liberated. After surviving the ghettos, woods and DP camps they made their way to America with one dream, two children, and the shirts on their backs. With love, tenacity and determination, they started a farm, raised a family and became the heart of Jewish life in Troy, NY.

Cantor Shira Ginsburg masterfully weaves together a story of loss, survival, food and family with vibrancy, wit, and a more than a few tugs at the heartstrings. A one-act, one-woman musical, Bubby’s Kitchen explores the balance between the new and the old, responsibility and desire, and life and love. Whether struggling to find real happiness or discovering the key to the svelte Ginsburg figure, the answers overflow like babka and blintzes in Bubby’s Kitchen.

Acknowledgment
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.