1. Lies, Rumors, and Accusations
in 1692, hysteria raged in Salem, vengeance is publicly expressed, everything is exaggerated, rumors and lies spreading like a wildfire, Mrs.Putnam for example, who is highly sensitive and catatonic, accused Rebecca Nurse, she accused Rebecca Nurse due to her jealousy and resentment against her, this is similar to the Jewish persecutions during the 1350s, during this period, the outbreak of the black death killed millions of people, numerous Europeans whose family members were sick quickly pointed their fingers to a Jewish community, with few little knowledge about diseases, they firmly believed it was the Jewish people who decided to spread diseases with poisoning wells. This event is very similar to Ann Putnam in The Crucible because both sides of people lost their rational and logical thinking when a tragical or emergency event happens to them. In addition, Ann Putnam has built up hate against Rebecca already, and the Europeans have built up hate against the Jewish people due to their immunity of the black death, therefore, accusing these victims become a way of expressing vengeance and jealousy publicly.
(That’s how fast it spreads!)
2. Religion
Religion plays an important role in both events, it had both negative and positive impacts on these two events. In both events, religion became a crucial role as emotional support for people who are involved with the situation, however, both events show us that religion will only support you mentally and empowers you as an individual, however, it can never change a fact, for example, in The Crucible, one of the most saintly and religious characters, Rebecca Nurse, was put to death for conducting witchcraft, ironically it was her belief that told her to not confess, which results in death penalty, a one side, it may be a good thing maintain the mentality to not admit someone else’s crime, but on the other side, this mentality killed her, so whether her belief has made a good impact or negative impact, is debatable. During the 1350s, after the massacre of the Jewish population, young Jewish children were forced to become Christian, in fact, the conflict between the Jewish community and the European community was religion, all of a sudden, religion became something that creates fear and chaos. 
Citation:
- Jedwab, Remi, et al. “Negative Shocks and Mass Persecutions: Evidence from the Black Death.” Institute for International Economic Policy, https://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2017WP/JedwabIIEPWP2017-4.pdf.
- Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, Penguin Group, 2003.
- The Trial of George Jacobs Sr. for Witchcraft, August 5, 1692, Matteson, Tompkins Harrison. (Painting citation)
Hi Anderson! It was a nice post ^^ I didn’t know much about the Jewish Persecution so at first, I thought the connection between are weak and less, however, after reading your post I felt there is actually a huge connection between. I get how their emotions were similar, both confusing situations had led them to panic. Oh, and the religious part had a lot of interesting information such as young Jewish were forced to be Christian. Why did people feel fear about religion? #curious
Hey, Lina, thank you for asking the question, regarding to your question on Why did people fear religion, my answer is that religion is not supposed to be something we should be fear of, instead, the original purpose of practice of religion is to achieve the goals of salvation for oneself and others, however, people twisted their meanings and purposes, many people uses religion as a title to do injustice things for the sake of themselves. For example, the Europeans in the 1350s claimed that they killed Jewish people for the sake of God because Jewish people believe in another God, this causes conflicts between two religious groups, which leads to religious wars. etc. Another reason is that people don’t worship God, they fear God, that’s why they believe in God to prevent punishments.
Hi Anderson! I agree that people lost their logical thinking when a tragical or emergency happens to them because if some tragical things that happen to people, they might blame or accuse the person that they hate the most first. I found some connection between The Crucible and The Jewish Persecution is that both of the innocent people were blamed and accuse by those people who dislike them, such as Mrs. Putname accuse Rebecca Nurse of using witchcraft and the Europeans accuse the Jewish due to the black deaths.
Hey Lauren, It seems like you have read my post thoroughly, you summarized very important points and made deeper connections with you experience and my post, here’s a question for you, since you have made some important connections, could you elaborate on why tragedies cause people to lose their logical thinking? Overall, thank you for embracing my context.