Lessons from Salem, as told by a Jew. (Cambridge, MA)

"It’s a matter of self-respect. 

To help someone who needs our help means self-respect. 

To fight racism means self-respect. 

To fight intolerance done to another means self-respect."

~ Elie Wiesel

As you may have gathered by now, I am getting settled in Boston. I am also exploring areas around Massachusetts, which includes a visit to Salem, the city famed for its witch trials. The picture above is of the Witch Trials Memorial.

The Salem Witch Trials occurred between 1692 and 1693.

During my recent visit, I learned that the actual witch trials were ignored and essentially forgotten for hundreds of years until the television show B'Witched in the 1960's brought the small Massachusetts town back on the map to fame, after filming some episodes on site.

From then on, the city of Salem started to acknowledge and honor their dark history.

I could write numerous emails about these witch trials and connect it to therapy concepts -- gender trauma, religious trauma, slavery and racial trauma, the Puritan's historical trauma as early settlers, indigenous trauma, etc.

I will spare you the super long lecture and soap-box rants (although I might mention Salem again in the future because the stories are so layered and fascinating).

For now, I am going to keep it simple.

 

What happened in Salem is eerily similar to what's happening in the world right now.

History can so easily repeat itself.

 

In Salem, twenty-five innocent men, women, and children were killed for being "witches."

Over two-hundred people were accused of witchcraft.

The youngest "witch" accused was Dorothy Good, who was just four (4!!!) years old. Although little Dorothy wasn't hung like her mother, she was forever changed by the trials and was described as someone who struggled with emotion regulation for the rest of her life.

The eldest "witch" killed a seventy-one year old woman, Rebecca Nurse [picture of her memorial rock is at the bottom of this message].

When you visit Salem, there are several "must see" locations. One of them is known as the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, located downtown [and pictured above], right next to the main graveyard.

This memorial wasn't even erected until 1992, three hundred years after the trials took place.

Guess who was asked to deliver the dedication speech at the memorial in 1992?

Hint: This email started with a quote from that day, from the speech that was given there, at Salem.

Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor, and author of the book, Night (1956).

At the end of his speech, Wiesel said,

"[Salem] is a lesson not about the past only, but also about the present.

That whenever a person or a group of persons come and say that they are superior to another group because of their color, race or religion,

they will create upheavals with bloodshed accompanying them...

when people are unjustly accused, when people are unjustly imprisoned, when people, men or women or children –

for God’s sake I cannot forget that one of those in prison was four years old, with chains – when children are victimized, humiliated, that means

there’s something wrong with our society."

(Wiesel, Salem Witch Museum, 1992)

There is still something wrong with our society.

 

Salem is a lesson of the horrific consequences that come from religious extremism and intolerance.

We live in a world where fear can be easier to grasp than faith, where hate has a home and love can feel lost.

It is a fact that antisemitism in the United States has increased by 360% after the October 7th, 2023 attack on Israel this past fall (according to the latest ADL data.)

In November (2023), I was speaking with a relative of mine who is a professor at a University in Boston (and it's not Harvard).

He shared with me that an American Jewish student was peacefully minding his own business and walking to class when suddenly other university students surrounded him and started chanting, "Murderer! Murderer!" simply because he was Jewish.

 

In Wiesel's speech at Salem, he said, speaking up against hate is a form of self-respect.

After the horrific October 7th attacks, I started offering Mindfulness for Anxious Jews, the drop-in groups, and then Understanding Trauma for Anxious Jews, the workshop.

Prior to 2023, I never considered myself someone who specialized in working with anxious Jews, despite the fact that I myself am Jewish.

I started sharing these offerings because I was hearing, over and over, from both Jewish patients and colleagues that they were struggling with antisemitism.

I paused these offerings when I moved to Boston.

I am happy to announce: They're Back!

I am grateful to offer some hope, support, and healing for the Jews who are continuing to deal with ongoing anxiety and antisemitism.

What has happened and is happening in Israel and Gaza is tragic.

Yes, there are absolutely anxious Muslims.

Palestinians have experienced horrors, too.

Anxiety does not discriminate.

Variations of ancestral trauma exist for anyone in the human family.

Modern-day discrimination sadly still exists for all minorities.

 

In the United States, according to the FBI, "Attacks on Jewish people make up 60% of religiously motivated hate crimes."

 

It is my mission to help those who are hurting.

For instance, on July 1st, 2024, I received twelve (12!) emails from Jewish therapist colleagues across the U.S. who are dealing with some overt antisemitism from other therapist colleagues.

This breaks my heart.

I mean, if therapists can't use their therapy skills to treat one another kindly, are we all screwed?

Is humanity doomed?

Let's hope not.

Let's try to be better, to do better.

If you're an anxious Jew, know an anxious Jew, or if you're someone who would like to better understand your fellow humans, join me at the upcoming workshop, Understanding Trauma for Anxious Jews.

This will be a space to intentionally process, feel, and heal by learning the ins and outs of trauma as related to a Jewish identity as well as experience tools to calm the body down so you can respond instead of react. Learn how to regulate your nervous system so you can show up stronger, calmer, and with more clarity on how to move forward in the current world. (More information described in detail below.)

May we learn from the past.

May we all have self-respect.

May we respect our differences.

May we respect one another.

Respectfully,

Hannah 

Book a Session

Random fact: The city of Salem, MA, was named after the city of Jerusalem in Israel.

Above: A zoomed-out view of the Witch Trial Memorial, including quotes like "I am innocent" from the accused during their trial. The artist intentionally faded the words, as if they did not matter to the biased ears that heard them.

Right: The memorial marker for Rebecca Nurse, a 71 year-old religious Puritan who was hung during the trials. Her husband was also accused and pressed to death.