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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Doctors Look To Raise Tay-Sachs Awareness Among Louisiana’s Cajuns
Tay-Sachs disease has been significantly curbed in the Ashkenazic Jewish community, thanks to increased awareness and a comprehensive screening process — which is especially popular in Hasidic communities. The same cannot be said for the Cajun community in Louisiana, which also suffers from a high disposition to Tay-Sachs; the community is not fully aware of…
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September Named Tay-Sachs Awareness Month
The Senate this July voted unanimously to name September National Tay-Sach’s Awareness Month. The resolution was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and co-sponsored by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. At this point, Tay-Sachs, a hereditary degenerative neurological disease, has no cure. The National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association, Inc., the oldest genetic disease…
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Consortium Maps 21 New Crohn’s Genes
One of the largest collaborative research teams ever assembled has concluded a decade-long study that may unlock the secrets behind Crohn’s disease. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases IBD Genetics Consortium and collaborating centers have identified 21 new genes that play a role in the appearance of Crohn’s. Crohn’s is an…
The Latest
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Author Squares Jewish and Medical Ethics
In an article she wrote this past spring for the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, bioethicist Laurie Zoloth approached from a Jewish perspective the moral choices posed by advances in genetic and medical research. While acknowledging the public sense of “moral panic” at the thought of genetic enhancement, she argues that the commandment to…
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Doctors Unveil Two Gaucher Studies
A broad screening program in Israel for Type 1 Gaucher disease, the most common of the Jewish genetic diseases, is proving controversial, Israeli researchers noted in a September 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Screening programs are encouraged for severe diseases where couples at risk could be identified before giving birth…
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Annual Guide to Jewish Genetic Diseases
The Forward presents this section to provide information on some of the more serious Jewish genetic diseases. There are about 20 “Ashkenazic diseases,” not counting the higher rates of at least four cancer-related genes. The diseases are more prevalent in the Eastern European Jewish population because of centuries of endogamy — literally, “marrying within.” Bloom’s…
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Where To Go for Support and Help
The MILO Gladstein Foundation 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #583 Los Angeles, CA 90028 www.bloomssyndrome.org [email protected] Lauri and Richard Gladstein established the Milo Gladstein Foundation for Bloom’s Syndrome in 2004 shortly after their son Milo was diagnosed with the disorder. The foundation’s goal is to fund research aimed at finding a treatment for the disease. Canavan Foundation…
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Fighting Pain — With a Paintbrush
Beautiful paintings and other works of art line the room. A rapt and attentive audience looks upward at the sea of color, expressing the personalities and feelings of those struggling with what it means to have a genetic disease. Expression of Hope, an exhibit sponsored by Genzyme Corporation, is designed to bring awareness of Gaucher…
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Doctors: Diet Can Help With FD
Researchers have discovered that they can help alleviate some of the symptoms of familial dysautonomia through diet. FD patients are deficient in the protein IKAP, which affects genes that make monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme that destroys tyramine. A diet high in tyramine can cause the autonomic crises that lead to such symptoms as vomiting,…
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NYU Treatment Center Gets Face Lift
The 38-year-old Dysautonomia Treatment and Evaluation Center at the New York University Medical Center has, in a few months’ time, undergone a vast expansion. Between November 2007 and this past February, the space the center occupies doubled, the center’s staff more than doubled and the equipment used was “really enhanced,” according to center director Felicia…
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Will of Iron, Heart of Stone: Book Shines Light on Golda Meir’s Harder Side
Golda By Elinor Burkett HarperCollins, 496 pages, $27.95. My moment of eye-openng disillusion with Golda Meir came early on in Elinor Burkett’s new biography of the female premier, titled simply “Golda.” The year was 1950, and Golda Meyerson, as she was then known, was nearing 60 and had just returned from her stint as Israel’s…
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