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Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma
2020 NAUTILUS BOOK GOLD IN PSYCHOLOGY
FOREWORD REVIEWS 2019 BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS FINALIST IN BOTH THE RELIGION AND SELF-HELP CATEGORIES Our past does not simply disappear. The painful history of our ancestors and their rich cultural wisdom intertwine within us to create the patterns of our future. Even when past trauma remains unspoken or has long been forgotten, it becomes part of us and our children―a legacy of both strength and woundedness that shapes our lives. In this book, Tirzah Firestone brings to life the profound impact of protracted historical trauma through the compelling narratives of Israeli terror victims, Holocaust survivors, and those whose lives were marred by racial persecution and displacement. The tragic story of Firestone’s own family lays the groundwork for these revealing testimonies of recovery, forgiveness, and moral leadership. Throughout, Firestone interweaves their voices with neuroscientific and psychological findings, as well as relevant and inspiring Jewish teachings. Seven principles emerge from these wise narratives―powerful prescriptive tools that speak to anyone dealing with the effects of past injury. At the broadest level, these principles are directives for staying morally awake in a world rife with terror.
FOREWORD REVIEWS 2019 BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS FINALIST IN BOTH THE RELIGION AND SELF-HELP CATEGORIES Our past does not simply disappear. The painful history of our ancestors and their rich cultural wisdom intertwine within us to create the patterns of our future. Even when past trauma remains unspoken or has long been forgotten, it becomes part of us and our children―a legacy of both strength and woundedness that shapes our lives. In this book, Tirzah Firestone brings to life the profound impact of protracted historical trauma through the compelling narratives of Israeli terror victims, Holocaust survivors, and those whose lives were marred by racial persecution and displacement. The tragic story of Firestone’s own family lays the groundwork for these revealing testimonies of recovery, forgiveness, and moral leadership. Throughout, Firestone interweaves their voices with neuroscientific and psychological findings, as well as relevant and inspiring Jewish teachings. Seven principles emerge from these wise narratives―powerful prescriptive tools that speak to anyone dealing with the effects of past injury. At the broadest level, these principles are directives for staying morally awake in a world rife with terror.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published April 9, 2019
75 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 14, 2019
This was an intellectually stimulating, compelling, easy to read book about the legacies and struggles of individual, familial and cultural traumas, and it led to a lot of important personal insights for me, as a Jewish 2x cancer survivor. After having read it the first time I am stuck between wanting to lend it to everyone I know and share the insights and wanting to go back and read it again with a highlighter. Definitely will be talking about this at our Passover Seder.
May 12, 2019
This book is the beginning of an essential conversation for the modern Jewish community. In “Wounds into Wisdom,” Rabbi Firestone synthesizes the multifaceted effect of trauma on the Jewish people’s collective and individual psychology. She draws on biological and social science as well as anecdotal narratives to illustrate the experience of modern Jews reconciling with our family’s difficult histories. I had several “aha” moments reading this book when I recognized my own experiences reflected in Firestone’s stories.
I was initially apprehensive of the second half of the book, which offers seven principles to begin healing. However, Firestone does a decent job of summarizing what has worked for others without prescribing a self-help plan to the reader. Her last principle, “Taking Action” may feel somewhat predictable for a certain set of liberal Jews who grew up with repetitive messages around turning victimhood into social responsibility. Nevertheless, Firestone sets the stage for vital discussions on trauma’s implication for Jewish families and communities, and our collective way forward to a thriving future.
I was initially apprehensive of the second half of the book, which offers seven principles to begin healing. However, Firestone does a decent job of summarizing what has worked for others without prescribing a self-help plan to the reader. Her last principle, “Taking Action” may feel somewhat predictable for a certain set of liberal Jews who grew up with repetitive messages around turning victimhood into social responsibility. Nevertheless, Firestone sets the stage for vital discussions on trauma’s implication for Jewish families and communities, and our collective way forward to a thriving future.
July 17, 2019
Sometimes the most important teaching a rabbi does occurs outside the classroom – when giving sermons and lectures or during counseling sessions. Two rabbis offer the lessons they learned over the course of their rabbinate in two new works: Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D., discusses how to overcome traumatic experiences in “Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma” (Adam Kadmon Books/Monkfish Book Publishing Company), while Rabbi Joshua Hammerman focuses more on everyday living in “MenschMarks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi – Wisdom for Untethered Times” (Health Communications). Both rabbis hope their thoughts will help readers live more meaningful lives.
Read the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...
Read the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...
October 23, 2019
Rabbi Feuerstein wrote this book after experiencing deep trauma in her own family. Two of her siblings committed suicide after having been cut off from her orthodox family because they had chosen different paths in life than orthodox judaism.
Feuerstein discovered late in life that both her parents had suffered trauma related to the Holocaust: Her mother as a Holocaust survivor and her father as a witness to the Holocaust when he liberated the Bergen Belsen concentration camp as a US soldier in 1945. Feuerstein's parents had never shared their traumatic experiences with their children.
It is clear to me that Feuerstein's very sad family history heavily informs her views.
As a therapist, Feuerstein of course relies on current scientific knowledge about trauma and on her own vast experience with her patients.
She relates how recent scientific studies have shown that untreated trauma is passed down generations, even unintentionally or unconsciously.
In this book Feuerstein tries to provide some practical tools to break this vicious cycle.
With illustrations from numerous case studies, Feuerstein suggests that key to healing is to first acknowledge the trauma. Feuerstein's own parents had never done this. On the contrary, they had hidden the truth from their own children, which had only exacerbated the tension in their family.
The author suggests 4 types of behavioral reactions to trauma, to help us identify and understand the origin of these behaviors:
1) Dissociation with the traumatic event, which leads to numbness of feelings.
2) Hyperarousal, i.e. always being in a state of readiness for danger, which leads to overreacting to every little trigger.
3) Isolation from society "which cannot be trusted" which leads to depression and the trauma becoming rigidly fixed.
and
4) Repetition of the trauma, which manifests itself in inflicting the same trauma on others.
Once trauma has been identified, Feuerstein suggests sharing the trauma in a safe environment, i.e. an environment that will hear the witness with compassion and without judgment. Therapists and support groups are good examples of safe environments. In order to heal, "tell we must".
Finally Feuerstein suggests many different approaches, which all boil down to the same idea: to try to transform the pain into something positive such as helping others who have experienced the same pain. (Hence the title "Wounds into Wisdom").
Scientists even have a term for this: PTG, or post traumatic growth.
Feuerstein points out that these traumatic behaviors and healing mechanisms apply not only to individual traumas but also to communal traumas. Just as individuals can be damaged by trauma and perpetuate the traumas to the next generations, so can communities be damaged by trauma and perpetuate it on a communal scale.
Feuerstein makes sure to mention that of course her findings apply to all individuals and communities that have suffered trauma, such as the African American community in the US.
But because of her own personal history, she chose to concentrate on the Jewish communal trauma.
The Jewish people have suffered persecution and discrimination for at least a couple of millennia. Trauma is deeply ingrained in the Jewish psyche.
The author notes that in her cases she heard two sides of the Jewish cultural trauma legacy:
On the one hand she heard stories of suffering that went on to produce more continuous suffering . Her own family's story for sure belongs to that category.
Her family belonged to an orthodox Jewish community that rigidly clung to the traditions of their persecuted and martyred ancestors to the point of cutting off their own children who chose another path. Feuerstein calls this type of parenting the "conditional love" type of parenting. This type of attitude is of course also expressed on a communal level. It reinforces the sense of victimhood, and encourages the tendency to isolate oneself from the rest of the world and, according to Feuerstein, only perpetuates the trauma instead of healing it.
On the other hand, Feuerstein heard testimonies of those who struggled to stop the destructive train of their mistrust, hopelessness and rage.
Those were the people who followed the Jewish call of "Tikkun Olam" (Repairing the world), those who reached out to the world beyond the narrow confines of Jewish continuity, those who took their traumatized history and converted it into kindness, those who turned their victimhood into social responsibility.
She quotes the biblical injunction to the Israelites: "Do not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in a harsh land".
Feuerstein is hopeful that by recognizing the automatic behaviors that follow a traumatic history, we can learn to unlearn them. And by doing so we can change our own fate.
She applies all of this optimism to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and is convinced that Israel can rise above its millennia long traumatic history to change its trauma induced attitude towards Palestinians and thus bring peace and healing in the Middle East.
While I believe she certainly makes a good point, I also believe that for this to work, the same effort needs to be made on the Palestinian side, with its equally trauma induced attitudes.
It takes two to tango.
Feuerstein discovered late in life that both her parents had suffered trauma related to the Holocaust: Her mother as a Holocaust survivor and her father as a witness to the Holocaust when he liberated the Bergen Belsen concentration camp as a US soldier in 1945. Feuerstein's parents had never shared their traumatic experiences with their children.
It is clear to me that Feuerstein's very sad family history heavily informs her views.
As a therapist, Feuerstein of course relies on current scientific knowledge about trauma and on her own vast experience with her patients.
She relates how recent scientific studies have shown that untreated trauma is passed down generations, even unintentionally or unconsciously.
In this book Feuerstein tries to provide some practical tools to break this vicious cycle.
With illustrations from numerous case studies, Feuerstein suggests that key to healing is to first acknowledge the trauma. Feuerstein's own parents had never done this. On the contrary, they had hidden the truth from their own children, which had only exacerbated the tension in their family.
The author suggests 4 types of behavioral reactions to trauma, to help us identify and understand the origin of these behaviors:
1) Dissociation with the traumatic event, which leads to numbness of feelings.
2) Hyperarousal, i.e. always being in a state of readiness for danger, which leads to overreacting to every little trigger.
3) Isolation from society "which cannot be trusted" which leads to depression and the trauma becoming rigidly fixed.
and
4) Repetition of the trauma, which manifests itself in inflicting the same trauma on others.
Once trauma has been identified, Feuerstein suggests sharing the trauma in a safe environment, i.e. an environment that will hear the witness with compassion and without judgment. Therapists and support groups are good examples of safe environments. In order to heal, "tell we must".
Finally Feuerstein suggests many different approaches, which all boil down to the same idea: to try to transform the pain into something positive such as helping others who have experienced the same pain. (Hence the title "Wounds into Wisdom").
Scientists even have a term for this: PTG, or post traumatic growth.
Feuerstein points out that these traumatic behaviors and healing mechanisms apply not only to individual traumas but also to communal traumas. Just as individuals can be damaged by trauma and perpetuate the traumas to the next generations, so can communities be damaged by trauma and perpetuate it on a communal scale.
Feuerstein makes sure to mention that of course her findings apply to all individuals and communities that have suffered trauma, such as the African American community in the US.
But because of her own personal history, she chose to concentrate on the Jewish communal trauma.
The Jewish people have suffered persecution and discrimination for at least a couple of millennia. Trauma is deeply ingrained in the Jewish psyche.
The author notes that in her cases she heard two sides of the Jewish cultural trauma legacy:
On the one hand she heard stories of suffering that went on to produce more continuous suffering . Her own family's story for sure belongs to that category.
Her family belonged to an orthodox Jewish community that rigidly clung to the traditions of their persecuted and martyred ancestors to the point of cutting off their own children who chose another path. Feuerstein calls this type of parenting the "conditional love" type of parenting. This type of attitude is of course also expressed on a communal level. It reinforces the sense of victimhood, and encourages the tendency to isolate oneself from the rest of the world and, according to Feuerstein, only perpetuates the trauma instead of healing it.
On the other hand, Feuerstein heard testimonies of those who struggled to stop the destructive train of their mistrust, hopelessness and rage.
Those were the people who followed the Jewish call of "Tikkun Olam" (Repairing the world), those who reached out to the world beyond the narrow confines of Jewish continuity, those who took their traumatized history and converted it into kindness, those who turned their victimhood into social responsibility.
She quotes the biblical injunction to the Israelites: "Do not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in a harsh land".
Feuerstein is hopeful that by recognizing the automatic behaviors that follow a traumatic history, we can learn to unlearn them. And by doing so we can change our own fate.
She applies all of this optimism to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and is convinced that Israel can rise above its millennia long traumatic history to change its trauma induced attitude towards Palestinians and thus bring peace and healing in the Middle East.
While I believe she certainly makes a good point, I also believe that for this to work, the same effort needs to be made on the Palestinian side, with its equally trauma induced attitudes.
It takes two to tango.
December 12, 2021
I've read and thought a lot about generational trauma since starting my own therapy journey and reading, "My Grandmother's Hands." This book, written by a retired rabbi and psychotherapist, is about understanding and healing from Jewish intergenerational trauma. It's full of wisdom and insight, especially the troubling reflection by a survivor about othering others. Her principles for healing are:
1. Facing the Loss
2. Harnessing the Power of Pain
3. Finding New Community
4. Resisting the Call to Fear, Blame, and Dehumanize
5. Disidentifying from Victimhood
6. Redefining Jewish Chosenness
7. Taking Action
A few other quotes from the book:
- Scholars of intergenerational trauma tell us that the silence shrouding a family’s untold stories paradoxically become the strongest form of transmission. (4)
- “One has to know one’s buried truth in order to be able to live one’s life.” - Professor Dori Laub (5)
- “The psychological burdens of a family‘s historical traumas often fall to the most sensitive or the new generation.” (36)
- … some epigenetic changes can be passed on to our offspring.” (47) 2015 study than children of Holocaust survivors 3x more likely to develop PTSD if exposed to traumatic events compared to similar Jewish individuals whose parents has not suffered in Holocaust. (48)
- “Knowing what our forebears went through helps us to better understand and have compassion for our family legacies and our own selves.” (49)
- “Freeing ourselves from our inherited family patterns is possible for both survivor and future generations. But this depends upon awareness of the trauma legacy that has been transmitted to us.” (49)
- “Importantly, the inner witness is the neutral observer the tracks are experiences with kind alert attention. It is neither judge no critic, nor even the problem solver inside of us rather the calm, self-aware part of ourselves it is wakeful, curious, and on our team.” (57)
- "And it is our body awareness that is the bedrock of our ability to become our own witness so that we can guide ourselves more effectively in the world." (124)
- “When you grow up as the other, as many Jews have around the world,” Tamara explained, “it’s natural that you will do it, too—you will ‘other’ others, I don’t know a better way to call it,” she said with a shrug. (150) From the author, “And so the cycle of violence and trauma is set in motion once again.” (151)
1. Facing the Loss
2. Harnessing the Power of Pain
3. Finding New Community
4. Resisting the Call to Fear, Blame, and Dehumanize
5. Disidentifying from Victimhood
6. Redefining Jewish Chosenness
7. Taking Action
A few other quotes from the book:
- Scholars of intergenerational trauma tell us that the silence shrouding a family’s untold stories paradoxically become the strongest form of transmission. (4)
- “One has to know one’s buried truth in order to be able to live one’s life.” - Professor Dori Laub (5)
- “The psychological burdens of a family‘s historical traumas often fall to the most sensitive or the new generation.” (36)
- … some epigenetic changes can be passed on to our offspring.” (47) 2015 study than children of Holocaust survivors 3x more likely to develop PTSD if exposed to traumatic events compared to similar Jewish individuals whose parents has not suffered in Holocaust. (48)
- “Knowing what our forebears went through helps us to better understand and have compassion for our family legacies and our own selves.” (49)
- “Freeing ourselves from our inherited family patterns is possible for both survivor and future generations. But this depends upon awareness of the trauma legacy that has been transmitted to us.” (49)
- “Importantly, the inner witness is the neutral observer the tracks are experiences with kind alert attention. It is neither judge no critic, nor even the problem solver inside of us rather the calm, self-aware part of ourselves it is wakeful, curious, and on our team.” (57)
- "And it is our body awareness that is the bedrock of our ability to become our own witness so that we can guide ourselves more effectively in the world." (124)
- “When you grow up as the other, as many Jews have around the world,” Tamara explained, “it’s natural that you will do it, too—you will ‘other’ others, I don’t know a better way to call it,” she said with a shrug. (150) From the author, “And so the cycle of violence and trauma is set in motion once again.” (151)
January 22, 2026
I have loved Tirzah Firestone's writing ever since she published her fascinating autobiography. This book continues great storytelling - stories from her own family (she is a child of Holocaust survivors) including the fate of the first born son, her brother who died by suicide at 30 and her famous sister, Shulamit who also died young and suffered from mental illness. Tirzah Firestone has gathered stories of Jews from all over - Israel, United States, Europe, etc and shows how generational trauma seeps into the genetic make-up and coping mechanisms of future generations. As Jews, we are all suffering from tribal trauma -- aftermath of the Holocaust, anti-semitism, living and dying in Israel in wars and attacks, etc. The book is not without hope and that there is a possibility of healing from Jewish trauma by facing the loss and pain, harnessing the pain into tikkun olam action, finding community, resisting the call to fear, blame, dehumanize, stepping away from victim mentality, redefining what it means to be a "chosen" people - away from superiority leading to racism. I had many aha moments when reading this book - a deeper understanding of my own family pain and inability to speak about anything deep as a way to deal with unowned pain tied to personal and collective trauma. Interesting that I attended a teaching by Tirzah Firestone and she also mentioned 10/7 as another trauma we have collectively experienced and need to heal.
January 28, 2020
I appreciated "Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma," but would have to consider the book more of a primer for those with a vested interest in the area of trauma. Rabbi Firestone creates compelling discussions around the impact of protracted historical trauma involving Israeli terror victims, Holocaust survivors, and those impacted by racial persecution. She weaves in a wealth of research - the book is incredibly well sourced, though for those of us, myself included, who've worked in the area of trauma the research is largely well known - it's really the application that's the point here.
I appreciated "Wounds Into Wisdom," though I never really connected to it. That said, I'm not Jewish but simply had an interest in the subject matter. Did that impact my ability to connect to the material? I think some would say yes. However, as a trauma survivor myself I had a great appreciation for the way this research is applied.
I'd easily recommend the book for those with an interest in the subject or for those seeking to understand the impact of intergenerational trauma.
I appreciated "Wounds Into Wisdom," though I never really connected to it. That said, I'm not Jewish but simply had an interest in the subject matter. Did that impact my ability to connect to the material? I think some would say yes. However, as a trauma survivor myself I had a great appreciation for the way this research is applied.
I'd easily recommend the book for those with an interest in the subject or for those seeking to understand the impact of intergenerational trauma.
December 29, 2021
Tirzah Firestone created a very clear picture of how trauma functions in different Jewish communities throughout the Jewish diaspora. This book helped me begin to fill in some knowledge gaps about my own family. It also helped me begin reaching out to a local reformed synagogue for my own community seeking journey.
May 11, 2019
Psychology of generational trauma focusing on Holocaust survivor's descendants. Not religious though she does address the impact generational trauma can have on faith. Based on current research and psychological theory.
December 25, 2019
It's a decent overview.
January 21, 2020
Well written and very interesting. How the author addresses the continued trauma in Israel is harrowing but good to know.
I read this book for the Jewish Women's Archives book club.
I read this book for the Jewish Women's Archives book club.
February 4, 2021
A lot to think about.
May 3, 2023
Pinpointed many of the issues I was examining regarding Jewish narrow focus on only their own suffering, and how it's been presented to ongoing generations.
November 1, 2024
It is such a wonderful explanation of familial trauma and the consequences of it
May 11, 2025
Audiobook
June 22, 2022
HEAVY SUBJECT MATERIAL WARNING
May 7, 2024
Excellent. Much more focused on Jewish/ Arab violence in Israel and Palestine than I’d expected, and this was good.
The book applies advances in epigenetics, Jungian psychology, and a trauma-informed reading of history to that conflict and asks the question: how do we break the cycle.
Firestone’s answer seems to be that we must understand and confront the trauma of our pasts if we can ever hope to move into a different future.
Ultimately, this is a grounded, yet hopeful book, and I expect that some future self of mine will look back on having read it with the conclusion that it served as an important contribution to my accumulation of wisdom.
The book applies advances in epigenetics, Jungian psychology, and a trauma-informed reading of history to that conflict and asks the question: how do we break the cycle.
Firestone’s answer seems to be that we must understand and confront the trauma of our pasts if we can ever hope to move into a different future.
Ultimately, this is a grounded, yet hopeful book, and I expect that some future self of mine will look back on having read it with the conclusion that it served as an important contribution to my accumulation of wisdom.
May 31, 2019
I found this book to be be helpful, informative, and meaningful. It enhanced my understanding of the individual and group experience of trauma and pathways to recovery.
May 19, 2023
h/t Hanka
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews