






When the Dor Yeshorim organisation was set up in New York and Israel in 1983, Tay-Sachs disease was rife in the Jewish community. Rabbi Joseph Ekstein, its founder, lost four children to the condition. The mutated gene that causes the disorder, which usually kills children before the age of 8, is ten times more common among Ashkenazi Jews (of European descent) than in most other ethnic groups. Jewish marriage customs made it highly likely that two carriers would start a family together, with a one in four risk that every child would be affected.
All that has changed. Of ten babies born with the condition in North America in 2003, none was Jewish, and only one child with Tay-Sachs was born in Israel that year. The reason was Dor Yeshorim’s genetic screening initiative. Jewish people are now routinely tested for Tay-Sachs status, and the community’s matchmakers do not pair carriers together. When two carriers do marry, they are offered embryo screening.
The new genetic test developed by Counsyl, a Californian start-up company, is now attempting to do for more than a hundred other genetic conditions what Dor Yeshorim did for Tay-Sachs. By informing prospective parents about the recessive mutations they carry, it should substantially reduce their risk of having children with an inherited disease.
“What we’re doing is simply a scaled-up version of the Jewish community’s successful effort to eradicate Tay-Sachs disease through universal screening,” said Balaji Srinivasan, Counsyl’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
For a NY Times article about Counsyl, link here.


Human Rights Watch “…criticized Jordan on Monday for stripping the citizenship of nearly 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Concerned about increasing numbers of Palestinians, who make up nearly half the population, Jordan began in 2004 revoking the citizenship from Palestinians who do not have Israeli permits to reside in the W. Bank.” (NY Times, 2/2, A6.)
The Times and the royal government studiously ignore the fact that Jordan was part of the Palestine Mandate, whose borders were drawn mostly to encompass the Land of Israel. Jordan was removed from the Mandate in 1946. It had been in the Mandate about 24 years.
This 60-page report details the arbitrary manner, with no clear basis in law, in which Jordan deprives its citizens who were originally from the West Bank of their nationality, thereby denying them basic citizenship rights such as access to education and health care.
A Summary of the Report is found here.

FROM ISRAEL:
Israel's Most Popular English-language News source
If you go to Microsoft’s latest offering, you'll find a link to download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta for free in the upper right-hand corner.
It will take a few minutes to download, but once you start using it (save to your desktop and quick start bar) there's no delay. It will give you Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and other goodies; you won't notice the difference because it's got built-in compatibility (e.g., with my previously used Micosoft 2003).
The main advantage is that it will give you the complete formatting options along the top of the screen, the area that they call the ribbon, so there's mucho easily and instantly available instead of having to click on drop-down menus; they're already there. Other options are available on a left-hand sidebar under "File". A benefit is it lets you save a list of recently loaded documents, so you can quickly recall them. The highlighting option is more user-friendly, as well.
I really highly recommend it; grab it while it's still free. Guess they're counting on word-of-mouth to encourage others to buy it; haven't seen a price suggested yet. - Webmaster
Thanks to the leadership of the Va'ad HaKashruth of Delaware, the kosher deli at Concord Pike's Shoprite will be kosher for Passover this year for the first time. They will offer a complete Seder meal (first Seder is March 29) at a per person price, as well as an a la carte menu throughout the holiday. Also, put Sunday, March 7 on your calendars. ShopRite and the Jewish Federation of Delaware will host the third annual Passover in the Aisles, from 11 am to 1 PM at the supermarket. Recipe tips, community outreach information, and samples of their Passover menu will be available.





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