Similarities between the Salem Witch Hunt and Events in Nachlaot

http://slusterbubble.hubpages.com/hub/The-Salem-Witches-and-Mass-Hysteria

 I found this article in a search for mass hysteria and was amazed at the similarities of the Salem Witch Hunts and what is going on in Nachlaot.

Just as in Salem, where people labeled as "witches" were feared and this fear helped fuel a witchhunt, also in the case of Nachlaot, the fear of child molestation has helped fuel a "witchhunt".

Of course, the fact that two women went door-to-door in Nachlaot telling their neighbors stories about molestation, and asking them if their kids had also been molested,  helped to create this hysteria.

It didn't take long before parents were being told their kids WERE molested from the stories the children started to make up.
 
Although there has been no precedent of such things ever happening before , such as the story that there were 6 pedophiles together with a group of 20 children, the stories were believed. No matter that many children that were claimed to be  in these groups by other children who made up the stories denied that they were and show no symptons of child abuse.  Not to mention the many conflicting versions of the story ie as one child said, we didn't have girls in our group because we didn't want them in our group. 

There is one more more aspect that I think is important.  Whenever you have a person or community that holds itself to be "holier than thou", the person or community is going to project whatever they are not able to deal with in themselves onto others.   So if molestion is going on, as I suspect, of course they will not be able to admit to themselves that  someone from their own family or social circle is doing it.  The first people that were blamed were people that "didn't fit in" just like in  Salem.  Afterwards, when the "symptoms" of child abuse  didn't diminish, anyone that was slightly different was also accused.  Just like in the Salem Witch Hunts when more and more children there showed "symptoms" of witch abuse,  more and more people were accused of being witches.   Similarly, in Nachlaot, when more and more children showed "symptoms" of child molestation, more and more people were accused of being pedophiles.