"I’m from Las Vegas and I went to Jewish Day School for 9 years followed by a performing arts high school. When I came to Brown I knew I wanted to take Hebrew again, so my first semester I took Ruti’s advanced class, which I loved, and that was really it for my connection to Judaism for the first couple years at Brown. I didn’t come to Hillel much but then I went on Birthright and spent the next two months doing Boston Onward Israel with an internship in Haifa, working at a start-up for an iphone app. Then I got an e-mail from Alisa and became an Engagement Intern. My project was Jews of Brown which was really just an experiment that become a big thing. I love human stories, and that's the tie between everything I do from theater, to my concentration in evolutionary anthropology, to my Judaism which is a big part of my identity, and so I wanted to explore that through other people's stories and conversations. What’s always interesting in my interviews is hearing that people pick and choose what they want out of religion because Judaism can mean so many different things to different people. Community, Shabbat, turning off lights, asking questions, being curious, justice..it’s all really opened my eyes to the different meanings that I didn’t necessarily associate with Judaism. The engagement internship was a great way to engage Jewishly in a unique way, and see how other students on campus interpret their Judaism through their projects and I recommend it to everyone. Outside of Jews of Brown, my Judaism is a part of my performing. My rapper name was RemC at first, which was my initials, but I kept referring to myself as the Red Queen, the character from Through the Looking Glass, but the Red Queen is patented so I chose Malka (Queen) Red, a half Hebrew name, and it’s so cool. I posted a new song on a Facebook ad a week ago in the US and Israel and more than 80% of the engagement on the post came from Israel, which is really exciting. And it’s funny because a Hillel event was the first time I rapped for real in front of people. I think Hillel isn’t only a place for religion but can also be for yoga, dance, Smithsonian exhibits, really anything you want it to be. It’s been a space for me to engage Jewishly in a way that’s meaningful to me."
Next year Rebecca will be moving to NYC to pursue a career in performing.
Next year Rebecca will be moving to NYC to pursue a career in performing.