The Soul of the World Weeps Through Us: Constructing a Grief Ritual Performance as a Counter to Colonial Violence

Abstract

This thesis advocates for the study and reintroduction of Indigenous and diasporic Jewish wisdom to confront colonial and imperial violence, and process collective trauma before it further perpetuates itself. It brings into dialogue two traditions: first, the scholarship of Healing Justice activists and organizers who urge us to reprioritize ancestral wisdom to repair our fractured relationships with land, community, ancestors, ritual, and spirit; and second, my own Jewish lineage and ancestors, who have long wrestled with questions, fears, and wisdom about diasporic survival within complex, violent, and hegemonic colonial projects. From the rich tapestry of diasporic Jewish wisdom, I unearth insights about grief, enshrined within yearly ritual processes like Tisha B'av, as the medicine needed to dress these abstract, oft-invisibilized, and intergenerational wounds. I draw upon the poetic tradition of communal lament in the Jewish tradition, which offers a spiritual and political framework for redistributing power in the face of colonial catastrophe. These threads are interwoven in this project, informing a ritual performance that grieves the violence of the Israeli occupation and destruction of Gaza, heightened since October 2023.

Read Honors Thesis here.