holy names for our dybbuk

A Ritual Performance at Sites of Jewish Memory in Poland

2024

*Portrait of The Dybbuk (dead flowers)*, archival inkjet print, variable dimensions, 2022 (photo credit Aaron Farley)

Premiering at the 8th annual FestivALT in Kraków, Poland on June 30 and July 2, 2024, Holy Names for Our Dybbuk represents the culmination of Jewish-American artist Julie Weitz’s extensive research during her tenure as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. Centered on revitalizing Yiddish folklore in Poland, Weitz employs collaborative performance strategies that intricately weave together Yiddish dance, song, mask, and storytelling at sites of Jewish memory.

In Yiddish folklore tradition, the “dybbuk” is a wandering spirit that clings to a living body to communicate messages from the dead. Traditionally, a group of healers would loosen the spirit’s grip on the host body through a combination of interviews, prayers and rhythmic chanting, culminating in a profound public demonstration of collective transmutation. Holy Names for Our Dybbuk reimagines a dybbuk exorcism for our times, as a movement-based score and site-specific ritual. Taking place at sites of Jewish commemoration in Poland, the performance brings audiences and performers into direct and embodied encounters with Jewish memory, as it is embedded in the land.

Created by Weitz, in collaboration with Polish choreographer Magdalena Przybysz, the 40-minute performance features Weitz as the lead performer with a multigenerational, Polish and Jewish-American ensemble. Weitz, as the dybbuk, becomes a channel for ancestral grief. Through rhythmic Hebrew chants and Hasidic-inspired choreography, the ensemble engages the dybbuk, creating a somatic and symbolic ritual to exorcize ancestral trauma from both the body and the land.

The project takes inspiration from the Ashkenazi shamans, known as ba’alei shem (masters of the name), who commonly used the holy names for god to assist in healing rituals. The project’s movement score is inspired by Polish Jewish choreographer Judith Berg, renowned for her contributions to the Yiddish film “Der Dibuk” (1937, Poland), combining modern dance with traditional Yiddish folk movement.

Weitz is actively fundraising to produce the performance. The project is fiscally sponsored and tax-deductible donations are received by Fulcrum Arts, a non-profit arts service organization. The project’s budget is available by request.

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Julie Weitz, *Wherever We Live, That’s Our Homeland (Dybbuk in Jewish Cemetery, Tarnow, Poland),* archival inkjet print, 2024 (photo credit Magda Chudzik)

Weitz embodies the dybbuk, standing amidst her ancestors' cemetery and holding a sign that says in Yiddish: “Wherever we live, that's our homeland.” The slogan originates from the Bundist movement in early 20th-century Eastern Europe, which is experiencing a resurgence among diasporic Jewish communities today.