This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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Accessibility vs. Expertise: Direct-to-Consumer Testing Sparks Debate
Drugstores stock tests that gauge blood sugar levels, predict ovulation, ascertain pregnancy and determine whether illegal drugs are in the bloodstream. And back in May, the Walgreens pharmacy chain announced that it would offer testing kits of another kind: ones intended to detect genetic diseases. Within days of Walgreens’ announcement, however, the retailer tabled its…
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$1.5 Million for Atlanta Screening
A two-year pilot program that promotes genetic disease awareness and offers carrier screening will be introduced in Atlanta as a result of a $1.5 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, the philanthropy of Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. The Victor Center for the Prevention of Jewish Genetic Diseases will manage the project, which will provide…
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Therapy Shows Promise in Trials for Hereditary Cancer Patients
An emerging therapy that attacks cancer cells continues to show promise, most recently in two international studies on women who have breast and ovarian cancer and are carriers of cancer-causing mutations particularly prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews. Two trials tested the experimental capsule olaparib on women whose breast or ovarian cancer had spread to other organs,…
The Latest
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Rare Connector: Bringing Bloom’s Sufferers Together
For a long time, Sheryl Grossman felt like she was alone in the world. Growing up in Flossmoor, Ill., she didn’t understand why she was so small, and why she had to see so many doctors. At the age of 14, her parents told her that she had Bloom’s syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive genetic…
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Lawsuit Filed Over Familial Dysautonomia Genetic Patent
A lawsuit now working its way through federal court is adding an interesting twist to the heated debate over genetic patenting. Two scientists from Fordham University are suing Massachusetts General Hospital over a patent on the gene that causes the rare Ashkenazi recessive genetic disorder familial dysautonomia. The two sides are each aligned with groups…
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Rabbis and Halacha Grapple With Advances in DNA Technology
Advances in genetic analysis and its medical applications are bringing unprecedented, if uneven, change to the world of Jewish law. Most often, the matter of genetics is considered in the context of issues on either end of life’s spectrum: those that relate to fertility and to the identification of post-mortem human remains. “DNA analysis is…
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Court Ruling Could Affect Genetic Patenting
A federal court ruling striking down patents on two cancer-causing genes has the potential to shake up the world of genetic patenting. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union, together with 18 individual plaintiffs, brought a suit against Myriad Genetics, which holds the licenses to the patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which can…
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A Tough Year for Gaucher Sufferers
It has been a year filled with anxiety, fear and disappointment for sufferers from Gaucher disease, who are continuing to deal with the fallout from last year’s shutdown of a pharmaceutical plant. In June 2009, Genzyme, the manufacturer of Cerezyme, then the only approved treatment for type 1 Gaucher disease, was forced to shut down…
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Tay-Sachs, MSUD Added to Social Security List
The Social Security Administration has added two genetic diseases that affect Ashkenazi Jews to its Compassionate Allowances list, expediting the awarding of disability aid to sufferers and their families. Tay-Sachs and Maple Syrup Urine disease were added to the list effective March 1, 2010. They were among 38 diseases and cancers added to the original…
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Where To Go for Support and Help
Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 520 New York, NY 10017 (212) 682-9900 www.dystonia-parkinsons.org Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation funds scientific research seeking to understand the causes of, and to find potential cures to, the movement disorders dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Bloom’s Syndrome Foundation 7095 Hollywood Boulevard #583 Los Angeles, CA 90028…
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Books A Historical Goose Chase for the Real Jewish Jesus
It seems obvious to note that Jesus — like Don Juan, Oedipus and Count Dracula — has a cultural life having little to do with his original narrative. Although it is now widely believed that he did exist, Jesus is so buried in centuries of Christian tradition that in 1906 Albert Schweitzer declared the search…
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