Diaspora

 My exploration of Diaspora began with a question: How did Judaism survive thousands of years of exile, and how do we as Jews continue to relate to “place” and “home”? After the destruction of the Second Temple, Judaism transformed from a temple-based religion into a portable one. The Torah became our sacred center, carried from country to country as Jews were expelled from more than 100 locations in Europe alone.

In these works, I trace this movement across centuries through layers of pattern, gesture, and symbolic language. A straightforward list of expulsion dates becomes a stark reminder of rupture. Weather Shocks interprets how climate and catastrophe intertwined with Jewish displacement. In Wisdom’s Wandering, symbols of land, home, streets, and community drift across fractured space, evoking both physical movement and spiritual continuity.

This series is also inspired by the Kabbalistic teaching of the Shattering of the Vessels. In this mystical story, divine light overwhelms fragile vessels, scattering holy sparks across the world. Human beings are called to gather these sparks through study, ritual, and compassionate action—an eternal practice of tikkun olam, repairing the world.

Through these works, I reflect on exile not only as loss but as a sacred task: a journey through which we carry wisdom, memory, and the responsibility to heal.