Tucsonans Evan and Michelle Glazer were screened through Scottsdale’s Jewish Genetic Diseases Center. When Ted Glenn heard that his chances of being a carrier of a life-threatening genetic disease were one in six, he knew what he had to do: get tested. Like all Ashkenazi Jews (with origins in Eastern Europe), Glenn has a high probability of carrying one of 11 genetic… Read more »
JFCS LEAH program coordinator Ilana Markowitz (Sheila Wilensky) Domestic abuse is still “a big secret” in the Jewish community, says Carol Sack, Jewish Family & Children’s Services vice president of financial resource development. Too many people still believe that “it’s such a shanda, or shame, for Jewish women to walk through our door,” she says, “and the… Read more »
These slides provide a graphic representation of variation. Due to the history of marriage within the faith, individuals of Jewish descent have less variety in their genetic makeup, making it easier for researchers to locate disease-causing genes. More variety makes it more difficult to pick out the red candy. (Photos courtesy of Johns Hopkins Medicine Epidemiology-Genetics Program in Psychiatry) Mental illness occurs in all cultures, including the Jewish community. “There isn’t any group that has a free pass or an additional risk,” says Eric Schindler, a clinical psychologist who is president and CEO of Tucson’s Child & Family Resources. Psychological disorders stem from environmental causes, genetic makeup and… Read more »
Just six months before the end of his Israeli army service, Elad Belachsan suffered a life-changing injury in a Palestinian attack. On a mission in the West Bank city of Nablus with his paratrooper unit, Belachsan, now 27, was near the front of the group when a bomb exploded,… Read more »
The Foundation for Cardiovascular Health, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, will offer two free presentations next month on reversing coronary artery disease. The first was on Sunday, Aug. 8, 1:30-3:30 p.m., at the Northwest YMCA Pima County Community Center, 7770 N. Shannon Road, and the second will be on… Read more »
To describe the dead body that lay before me at my first tahara, the simple word “real” seems most appropriate. A tahara is the traditional Jewish cleansing performed on a body before burial. At my recent first tahara, none of the cliches occurred. I did not feel scared or… Read more »
Volunteer Heidi Felix, right, with a camper at Tu Nudito's Summer Camp (Jesus Guzman) Smiles and happiness are the first things volunteer Heidi Felix, 24, mentions about the children at Tu Nidito’s Treehouse Summer Camp. Smiling faces may be the norm at most summer camps, but for Tu Nidito, a local nonprofit agency that serves children who are grieving, seriously ill, or have… Read more »
WASHINGTON-Fourteen years ago, Washington, D.C., resident Laurie Strongin remembers, it seemed almost like “science fiction” the notion that you could “pick the baby you could get pregnant with.” Moreover, cells from that newborn might save the life of her young son, Henry, who was suffering from a rare genetic… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A middle-aged Russian tourist dressed in white and claiming to be Jesus checked in last week at the Petra Hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City. He did not stay long, the hostel’s clerk said. Just a few days and he was gone. The man likely… Read more »
