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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Philanthropist Puts Genetic Diseases to The Test
As someone who has lost two daughters to familial dysautonomia, Lois Victor knows all too well the pain that can be wrought by genetic disease. But rather than wallow in her suffering, Victor decided to take action. She has been the driving force behind two major new centers specializing in Jewish genetic diseases, and by…
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Ashkenazim Prove Central in Pancreatic Cancer Study
Pancreatic cancer, an often fatal disorder affecting about 1% of the American population, is not usually considered a “Jewish” genetic disease, but researchers at the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry at Johns Hopkins University would beg to differ. The NFPTR operates a special sub-registry to specifically track pancreatic cancer patients and their relatives among the…
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Experts: Testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancers Still Lags
When Wendy Mailman’s mother, Eloyce, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last February, her concerned daughter immediately began scouring the Internet for information. Through medical sites and an ovarian cancer listserv, Mailman learned that women of Eastern European Jewish descent were at an increased risk for inheriting a predisposition for both breast and ovarian cancer. One…
The Latest
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Author Enters Debate Over Jews and I.Q.
The Rev. William Sanchez of Albuquerque, N.M., has more than just the standard priest’s cross hanging from his neck. After a genetic test showed that some of his ancestors from Spain were Jewish, he took to wearing a Star of David, as well. Such is the “mystique of Judaism,” writes Jon Entine, author of the…
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Making Progress, Bit by (Rib)Bit
In their research on Fanconi anemia, Maureen Hoatlin and her four associates at the Oregon Health & Science University have been getting groundbreaking help from a small, slimy source. Hoatlin’s lab has shown that the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) has Fanconi genes and can be used to understand the complex set of proteins that…
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PET Scan Aids in New Hyperinsulinism Cure
After 1-month-old Lily Meyers suffered two seizures in the span of two weeks, her parents faced a terribly daunting task: wading through the endless possibilities of what, exactly, was plaguing their daughter. With the aid of some new technology, however, Lily was not only properly diagnosed but also effectively cured. Rana and William Meyers eventually…
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Can Testing Ever Be a Mistake?
Even when given the option of free or low-cost genetic testing, there are some who have consciously decided against it out of fear that the results could lead to discrimination from insurance companies or employers. Are such fears warranted? According to Noah Kauff, a geneticist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, they are not. Of…
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Tay-Sachs Association Turns 50
When it was founded in 1957, the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association was no more than a group of New York parents who had dedicated themselves to ending Tay-Sachs and the genetic diseases related to it. Tay-Sachs may still be around, but at the NTSAD’s 50th anniversary gala in October, the group will have…
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Similarities Between Cerebral Palsy and ML4 Make Diagnosis a Challenge
‘Diagnostic hell” was the way that Mary Jo Reich, a mother of two from Short Hills, N.J., described her son Scott’s battery of misdiagnoses. Although pediatricians had told Reich that Scott was following a normal developmental curve for the first eight months of his life, she had always sensed a problem. “He was less than…
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Two New Gaucher Meds on Horizon
Two new oral treatments for Gaucher disease, the most common of the Jewish genetic diseases, have reached Phase II clinical trials and could be on the market within the next few years. Two pharmaceutical companies, Genzyme and Amicus Therapeutics, are each developing their own oral drugs and have taken very different approaches to tackling the…
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Campuses Offer Genetic Tests (No Studying Required)
At the Pennsylvania summer camp where she was working as a counselor, Shoshana Rosen got tested for nine Jewish genetic diseases and found out she was a carrier of cystic fibrosis. Thanks to the Victor Center for Jewish Genetic Diseases, the tests she received were free of charge. Had she gone to a private laboratory,…
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