-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.escape.com/~elyaqim/ashk/index.html
}}}>Begin
Who are the Eastern Ashkenazim?
Well, I�m glad you asked. We are the Jews whose ancestors settled in
north-Eastern Europe, in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Poland,
Romania, Hungary, Lithuania and the region once known as Galicia.
The first Jews in the area came northwest from Palestine, speaking
Hebrew and Jud�o- Aramaic. Many settled and eventually mixed with
Khazars and perhaps also other Turkic and Caucasian peoples who had
also come from the East. (Other Jews continued westward to Central
Europe and adopted some Central European culture, including creating
Jud�o- German, a Jewish variant of Medieval Germanic dialects mixed
with Hebrew, Aramaic, Old French and Old Italian.)
Generations later, German and Austrian Jews started to flood into
Eastern Europe, primarily due to anti-Semitism. They soon outnumbered
the �native� Jews, imposed their language on them, intermarried, and
the two groups eventually became indistinguishable. Jud�o- German
absorbed Eastern European and Turkic elements and turned into
Yiddish.
The collision of these two already mixed groups of Jews created a unique culture, the
one with which most non-Jews are familiar. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Sfaaradim
(Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal) fled primaril
y into the Balkan countries, similarly imposing their Jud�o-Spanish (Ladino) on the
�native� Jews. Also, there are Jews in the Northern Caucasus who speak a Jud�o-Persian.
However, Eastern Europe is no longer the thriving center of Jewish culture it once
was. Political upheaval caused many of the Jews to flee (including my
great-grandparents). Most Ashkenazim settled in the Americas, Englan
d, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand, or �returned� to Palestine/Yisroel
(Israel). Assimilation became a way of life for most, losing much of their identity,
and retaining little of Jewish culture beyond Judaism. Eve
n in Israel, they may have retained a strong Jewish culture and identity, but have
assimilated into Israeli culture, ignoring the Diaspora culture that had been created
and cherished by their more immediate ancestors. Tho
se few Jews who remained in Eastern Europe usually also chose to assimilate, if they
weren�t murdered in the Holocaust. They generally cannot be distinguished from the
indigenous white peoples amongst whom their ancestors
had settled. The dissolution of the U. S. S. R. has sent many more Jews emigrating to
the United States and Israel.
Ashkenazi culture (�Yidishkayt�) suffered greatly due to Nazism, Stalinism,
assimilation (both in Israel and the Diaspora) and anti-Semitism, and now the
overwhelming majority of Ashkenazim (I included) do not speak or un
derstand Yiddish. Most have little or no connection to Jewish culture, Music,
literature, anything. What can be done to preserve our culture and keep it alive?
For more information about the Turkic Central Asian descent of the
Eastern Ashkenazim:
The Khazaria Info Center�Khazars, Khazar, Khazarian
S. C. J. FAQ Section 13.4.
Last updated: Detsember 1999, Teyves 5760.
End<{{{
From
http://www.ishipress.com/ashkenaz.htm
}}}>Begin
April 22, 1998
Jewish Concern Grows as Scientists Deepen Studies of Ashkenazi Genes
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
n a snowy night in January 1996, a handful of Boston scientists
convened some of the city's most prominent Jews for a quiet, off-the-
record briefing. Over sandwiches and cookies, the rabbis and leaders
of Jewish groups learned of the latest research on a breast cancer
gene that occurs with startling frequency in American Jews of central
and eastern European descent.
Then Dr. Judy Garber, a breast cancer researcher at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute, posed a question to the guests: Would their
organizations cooperate in future studies of this gene and its
implications for these Jews, called Ashkenazis, and their families?
To Dr. Garber's surprise, the answer was a polite but firm "No."
"The feeling was, 'Why us?"' said a guest, Nancy Kaufman, executive
director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston.
"There was concern about targeting Jewish women, of making this
appear that this is a Jewish issue when it isn't."
Over the past few years, that concern has mushroomed, as scientists
have become acutely interested in the genetic idiosyncrasies of
Ashkenazi Jews. That is not because these Jews have more defective
DNA than any other ethnic group -- they do not. Nor is it because
Ashkenazis in general have higher rates of hereditary disease than
other groups -- they do not. Rather, centuries of living and marrying
within the confines of ghettoes have produced a relatively homogenous
population in which tiny genetic alterations, or mutations, that
cause disease are easy to find.
While other isolated populations, most notably the Amish, the
American Indians, Finns and Icelanders, are being studied with
similar intensity, perhaps no group is as conflicted about its role
as study subjects as the Jews. The reason is obvious: No other group
carries the psychological scars of the Holocaust, a calculated
extermination attempt rooted in the notion that Jews were genetically
inferior.
"There is a historical context to this that I don't think you can
ignore," said Dr. Michael Grodin, a professor of Jewish law and
medicine at Boston University, who has written extensively on Nazi
Germany. "People are anxious."
"We are getting a bad reputation," said Rabbi Moshe David Tendler,
who teaches medical ethics at Yeshiva University in Manhattan. "All
the bad genes you talk about are Jewish genes. Why? Because we have a
wonderful genetic population to study, and so everybody heads for the
Ashkenazi Jew. It's like a gold mine."
Indeed, Ashkenazis, whose ancestors are from Central and Eastern
Europe and who make up 90 percent of the six million Jews living in
the United States, have contributed greatly to scientific
understanding of the way genes influence disease in Jews and non-Jews
alike.
Each new study, it seems, begets another. Researchers studying two
known breast cancer genes have identified three specific mutations
common to Ashkenazis; these mutations are also linked to ovarian and
prostate cancer. Last year, scientists searching for a gene for colon
cancer accidentally found it in Ashkenazi Jews.
The inquiry is not limited to cancer. At Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, geneticists are now struggling to recruit Ashkenazis in an
effort to pinpoint the genes for two inherited mental disorders,
schizophrenia and manic depression. At Stanford University, an
examination of autism in Ashkenazi families is under way.
Proponents of such studies, including some Jewish geneticists who are
conducting them, contend that they can only be a boon for Jews,
giving them early access to genetic testing and, eventually,
treatment. But others fear that the studies will leave Jews
vulnerable to discrimination by employers and insurance companies,
and they worry that as more discoveries make the news, the public
will be left with the impression of Jews as genetic misfits.
Even the research lexicon makes some Jews cringe; who, after all,
wants to hear themselves described as carrying genetic defects or
mutant genes? "The use of the word mutation gets to our very soul,"
said Karen Rothenberg, a law professor at the University of Maryland
who is studying the effects of genetic research on Jews. "It's the
whole question of stigma and our own view of ourselves."
The subject strikes such a sensitive chord that Hadassah, the Jewish
women's organization, is sponsoring a Jewish Leadership Meeting on
Genetics on Wednesday in Washington, where top officials of the
National Institutes of Health will discuss genetic research with 30
of the nation's most distinguished rabbis and leaders of Jewish
groups.
"I don't think there is an overreaction going on here," said Dr.
Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research
Institute and a featured speaker at the meeting. He added that all
people -- regardless of ancestry -- are "walking around with
somewhere between 5 and 50 rather significant glitches in our DNA."
But few people understand what those glitches mean, said Amy Rutkin,
Hadassah's director of American affairs, or how often they occur. For
instance, current estimates are that the so-called Jewish mutations
in genes known to cause breast cancer appear in 2.3 percent of
Ashkenazi women and that 6 percent of Ashkenazis carry the colon
cancer gene.
Those percentages are high, but not nearly as high, Ms. Rutkin said,
as some Jews mistakenly believe. By comparison, the colon cancer gene
has not been found in any non-Jews; fewer than 1 percent of non-Jews
carry a mutated breast cancer gene.
Ms. Rutkin says that anxiety is so intense that she worries that just
raising the topic of genetics and Jews will "fan the flames of fear."
But Hadassah wants to see the genetic studies continue. "We cannot
bury our heads in the sand," Ms. Rutkin said.
The ambivalence is so widespread that academics are beginning to
study it. Two years ago, Dr. Kathryn Taylor, a medical sociologist at
York University in Toronto, asked 20 Jewish families their opinions
on the breast cancer research. Half said their families welcomed it,
while the other half said they felt victimized by it.
Those conflicting feelings are creating tension among Jews who, on
the whole, are "very pro-science," said Grodin, the Boston University
ethicist.
As far back as the Middle Ages, some of the greatest Jewish scholars
were also doctors, among them Moses Maimonides, the renowned
interpreter of Jewish law. The notion that health is paramount is
deeply rooted in Judaism; the mandate to fast on Yom Kippur, for
instance, is lifted when someone is sick. And Jews consider it a
moral obligation to advance scientific knowledge, he said, in keeping
with what Ms. Rutkin called the ideal of tikkun olam -- doing justice
to repair the world.
In fact, many of the scientists who are conducting the current wave
of genetics research are themselves Ashkenazi Jews. Among them is Dr.
Bert Vogelstein, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine, who discovered the colon cancer gene. He comes from a long
line of rabbis -- 13 generations of them, a family tradition that
ended with Vogelstein's father.
Being Jewish, Vogelstein said, helped him make his discovery. When
two patients turned up with the same genetic alterations, he said, "I
noticed, just by looking at their names, that they were both likely
to be Ashkenazi. In a sense, that's my family."
That notion -- the idea of studying one's family -- is driving some
scientists to select Jews as their study subjects. Among them is Ann
Pulver, associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, who is
focusing on Ashkenazis for her study of schizophrenia and manic
depression, even though there is no evidence these disorders occur
with greater frequency in Jews.
"There are many genetically homogenous populations to study," Dr.
Pulver said. "But I myself am an Ashkenazi Jew. I think this is a
great advantage to the Jewish community."
For scientists who are not Jewish, however, studying Jews is a
delicate endeavor. "It's been stressful," acknowledged Dr. Jeff
Struewing, a genetic epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute.
Two years ago, Struewing recruited 5,318 Ashkenazi men and women in
the Washington area for the first large-scale effort to assess the
prevalence of breast cancer mutations among Ashkenazis.
So Struewing, who said he knew few Jews and little about Judaism,
formed a committee that included rabbis to guide his research. "They
kept me from putting my foot in my mouth," he said. They also spread
the word to their congregants; in nine weeks, Struewing's study was
full. His work, published last May, was cited as an example of how to
conduct culturally sensitive research. But Ms. Rothenberg, the
Maryland law professor, said Jews had become more wary of late.
Today, she said, "I'm not sure it would be as easy to get such quick
recruitment."
The breast cancer study was not the first time Jews participated in
mass testing for a hereditary disorder. Since the early 1970s,
pregnant Jewish women have been routinely tested for Tay-Sachs
disease, a fatal neurological illness that kills children when they
are toddlers. The disease occurs when a child is born to two parents
who carry the Tay-Sachs gene. The majority of cases, 85 percent,
occur in Ashkenazi Jews.
Professor Rothenberg describes Tay-Sachs testing as "the era of
positive genetics" for Jews, most of whom view screening as a
mitzvah, or good deed. But she and others note that there is an
important difference between screening for Tay-Sachs and diseases
like breast cancer: Unlike Tay-Sachs, breast cancer cannot be
prevented, leaving some Jews -- and many non-Jews -- debating whether
testing does more harm than good.
Among the skeptics is Rabbi Joseph Ekstein, who in 1983 founded a Tay-
Sachs testing program in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Among
the Orthodox, who place a high value on marrying into a healthy
family, screening for a disease that has no treatment could create a
class of unmarriageable women, he said.
"What is the advantage?" the rabbi asked. "It is just making more
tragedy."
On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Joseph Schulman, founder of
the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Va., one of the largest
genetic testing centers in the nation. His wife recently tested
positive for a mutated breast cancer gene, and had her breasts and
ovaries removed as a preventive measure. Schulman believes the
testing may have saved his wife's life. "This is obviously of great
value to Jews," he said.
As the debate continues, some Jewish organizations, including Ms.
Kaufman's group in Boston, have begun pressing their state
legislators, as well as Congress, to adopt laws prohibiting genetic
discrimination in employment and insurance.
Rabbi Tendler, the ethicist at Yeshiva University, said he would
discourage Jews from participating in research or genetic testing
until protections are passed. "There's so much promise that I always
walk gingerly when it means holding back any aspect of research," he
said. "Yet, you have to weigh the risk against the benefit."
Home | Sections | Contents | Search | Forums | Help
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
