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Our Story
Schmearing Inner Peace Since 2023
Help for Anxious Jews was born from a simple truth: being Jewish in today’s world can feel confusing, isolating, and scary. After October 7th, 2023, Help for Anxious Jews founder, Hannah, a psychotherapist, was horrified and disgusted when she read news stories about the trauma Israelis endured from the Hamas attacks and torture -- pains that they are continuing to endure. On October 8th, she saw Facebook posts and received emails from Israeli colleagues providing therapy to patients from bomb shelters and others trying to think of ways to practice mindfulness while their country went to war. As a psychotherapist who specializes in helping survivors of sexual trauma, she was appalled by the global lack of outcry and compassion for Israelis, including the young women raped and killed at Super Nova with their assailants sickeningly bragging about their acts. Her heart goes out to the hostages sexually assaulted in captivity and their family members struggling with the aftermath. She has deep admiration for all of the healthcare workers, including psychotherapists, on the front lines who are providing care to anyone in the Middle East, helping innocent young children to elderly adults. She could see that her own patients and American therapist colleagues were stressed by this global event too. Help for Anxious Jews is her way of bringing tikkun olam (Hebrew for “repairing the world”) to a community that is hurting.
We’re living in a time of rising antisemitism.
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According to the FBI’s 2023 hate crime statistics, there were 2,699 reported religion-based hate crimes in the United States—more than half of them (1,832) targeted Jews.
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In 2023 alone, the ADL recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents in the U.S.—the highest number ever.
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Assaults, harassment, and threats to Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centers have skyrocketed.
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The American Jewish Coalition (AJC) found in a 2024 survey that 27% of American Jews have avoided disclosing their identity in new social interactions.
This isn’t new.
For centuries, Jews have been targeted by harmful tropes: greedy, manipulative, foreign, or all-powerful. These old lies still show up today—on social media, in the news, on college campuses, and in political debates. Sometimes it's loud and clear. Other times, it’s subtle—hard to name, but easy to feel.
You are not alone.
You are not imagining things.
You deserve care that understands the whole picture.
Welcome Home
Today, we are a group of Jewish therapists based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who provide Jewish-affirming care for Jews—whether you’re religious, cultural, atheist, spiritual, questioning, or somewhere in between.
We believe you deserve care that understands not just your anxiety, but where that anxiety lives in the context of Jewish identity, history, and current events.
Why Us?
Jewish trauma is real, whether it’s inherited from Holocaust survivors or sparked by a recent experience on campus, at work, or online. We get the questions, the challenges, the identity stuff you might be working through.
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We know being Jewish isn’t just about religion—it’s culture, community, history, humor, and sometimes… inherited anxiety. (Thanks, Bubbe and Zayde.)
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We understand the unique mix of cultural, spiritual, and familial layers that come with being Jewish—without needing a full explainer on the difference between a shiva call and a Shabbat dinner.
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We also know how painful it is to feel invisible in conversations about justice, racism, and oppression, even though Jewish communities are diverse, multiracial, and have experienced centuries of persecution.
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Oh, and we also happen to know a lot about healing from trauma, managing anxiety and depression, and navigating other mental health concerns.
To be clear, we aren’t rabbis. We know and love a lot of them and are happy to connect you with one if you want, but we will never push a rabbi or religion on you.
Instead, think of us as having a Noah’s Ark-sized toolbox, stocked with strategies to help you ride out life’s storms. Our goal? To help you rediscover your own vibrant colors—because yes, there’s a rainbow waiting at the end of the inherited anxiety spiral and depression shroud of darkness.
We welcome Jews across the spectrum—religious, secular, atheist, agnostic, culturally Jewish, Jew-ish, and everything in between (even if you’re still figuring it out over brunch). All genders, sexualities, races, ethnicities, and food intolerances are embraced—no need to code-switch at the door.
If you identify as both “Anxious” and “Jewish,” we are here for you.
If you identify as anxious and Jewish, you're going to love this free guide describing "7 Ways Anxious Jews Self-Soothe That Actually Make Anxiety Worse (And What to Do Instead)"
