The study of the intergenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma is a wide-ranging field of research that primarily focuses on the transference of traumatic feelings and behaviors to succeeding generations. Within this vast field of inquiry, the preponderance of research suggests that the psychosocial transference of tragedy and loss within survivor families leads to the inheritance of fear, anxiety, and sadness among children as well as grandchildren of survivors (Bar-On, 1995; Kellerman, 2001). While the psychiatric literature in the field is extensive and far-reaching, the importance of religious culture to the intergenerational transmission of trauma has received far less attention, an oversight that is particularly significant given the role that descendants assume as carriers of both genocidal trauma and a threatened religious heritage. The goal of this chapter, therefore, is to investigate the relationship between inherited trauma and religious beliefs and practices among children and grandchildren of survivors. In particular, the chapter will examine the construction of spiritual worldviews and ritual innovation among descendant generations. In general, the chapter shows that we need both a broad cultural lens and sensitivity to the nuances of local culture and ritual interaction among family members if we are to more effectively and fully interpret what we mean by trauma, how we understand its social transmission to individuals not directly exposed to the traumatic event, and how we can understand the impact of trauma across generations. The specific contributions that this work makes to the study of religion and traumatic inheritance lies in a number of important areas of research.

First, the chapter provides an investigation into the relationship between genocide, religion and traumatic inheritance, as religious culture becomes a vehicle for both the memorialization of the past and the means by which a religious/ spiritual future is reimagined. Second, the chapter makes use of an interpretive framework that, in its departure from the prevailing psychological approach to traumatic transference, focuses on the social structures of family and culture – religious beliefs systems and ritual practices – through which a history of genocidal trauma is passed on from one generation to the next.