Helene Karlin knew something wasn’t right. It was the early ‘90s, and at 7 weeks old, her third daughter, Lindsay, wasn’t developing the same as her older two daughters. Getting a diagnosis was frustrating; one doctor determined she was blind, another said she was deaf. It wasn’t until Lindsay was 6 months old when the…
Genetic carrier testing was just a formality for Katie Rosen and Matt Kurzmann when they decided they were ready to grow their family. Two Ashkenazi Jews, they knew it’s what you did to put your mind at ease. So they skipped the doctor and went online to order JScreen, a genetic screening kit, to be…
From the time of the Babylonian Exile, Jews have been spread far and wide, carrying with us mementos of our ancient past in our blood, spit and the microscopic double helix of our DNA. Among the best tools the Chosen People have for finding a link to antiquity is bleeding-edge technology that analyzes our genes…
It only takes two milliliters of spit — less than half a teaspoon — to map your DNA. But, as it turns out, that’s kind of a lot of spit. Last week, JScreen, a non-profit Jewish genetic testing service, visited Yeshiva University, hundreds of mostly Orthodox students came through to summon enough spit to ship…
On Tuesday, Judy Maltz reported in Haaretz that the Israeli Rabbinate, which controls conversion, marriage and divorce in Israel, is using DNA testing to verify a person’s Jewishness. Since a person who isn’t Jewish can’t marry a Jew in Israel, which has no civil marriage, the rabbinate is using the DNA test to deny people…
(JTA) — In a genetic study of 6,589 people from five Latin American countries, about a quarter displayed traces of what may be Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Geneticist Juan-Camilo Chacón-Duque and his colleagues published their findings last week in Nature Communications magazine, in an article titled “Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local…
Companies will do anything to get your most personal, private information. Even (checks notes)… seizing your DNA sequencing pattern in exchange for a playlist of world music. The music streaming service Spotify and the genetic testing service Ancestry.com have teamed up to offer consumers a whenever-in-a-lifetime opportunity: If you pay to have your genes tested,…
Stephen Colbert really tore Paul Ryan a new one this weekend. Responding to last week’s revelation that Catholic Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has roughly 3 percent Ashkenazi-Jewish ancestry, Colbert asked the question weighing on so many of our hearts: “Haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough?” He went on to point out that if…
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