Breast Cancer Advocate Rochelle Shoretz Dies At 42
Rochelle Shoretz Image by Courtesy of Sharsheret
By Sarah Breger June 1, 2015
Rochelle Shoretz, a longtime advocate for women with cancer, died Sunday from complications of breast cancer. She was 42. Shoretz was the founder of Sharsheret, a national organization for young Jewish women facing breast and ovarian cancer.
Shoretz established the non-profit in 2001, after her own diagnosis at the age of 28.
The organization sought to address the unique challenges young women with cancer face such as fertility, career, and dating.
In an interview with Jewish Women Magazine, Shoretz the impetus for Sharsheret:
“I had a medical team, and there were many offers to connect me with older women with cancer,” says Shoretz, who is Orthodox and married to a venture capitalist, “but they couldn’t identify with the issues I was facing: raising children, fertility, career, supporting a mother who had a daughter with breast cancer. More frightening than living with cancer is believing that you are the only person like you living with cancer.”
Sharsheret also provided a network of mutual support and resource sharing for Jewish women with an increased risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer due to certain genetic mutations.
Upon learning of her cancer’s return in 2009, Shoretz, a lawyer who had previously clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, told the Forward:
I’ve had such a rich and meaningful life. Of course I wish I had more time. I would love to see grandchildren, to see weddings, to be a part of these amazing things for more time, but I love life and don’t want to spend any of it mourning the loss of that which I can’t have. I’d much rather embrace that which I do.
Outpourings of grief on Sunday night followed Sharsheret’s announcement of Shoretz’s death on its website and Facebook page. The organization issued the following statement:
Rochelle’s legacy is her children and an incredible organization that only she could have built. Her passion and drive will forever remain the foundation of Sharsheret. No words can adequately express our sadness at Rochelle’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with her. We will honor her memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the critical work she loved so much.
The funeral will be held Monday.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
