One hundred years ago, when Cedars-Sinai Medical Center\’s predecessor, Kaspare Cohn Hospital, opened its doors with 12 beds as Los Angeles\’ first Jewish hospital, such medical staples as penicillin and insulin remained to be discovered.
In some families, breast and ovarian cancers take an inordinately fierce toll, striking one generation after another, menacing mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins. And for the women in these families, wondering if and when cancer might strike becomes a daily burden.
Each year in January, female friends, co-workers and family members of Nicola Shocket can count on receiving a phone call or e-mail.
Soroya Nazarian learned about hereditary inclusion body myopathy (HIBM), an uncommon muscular disorder that affects the Persian Jewish community, while in Israel on a Hadassah mission about five years ago. There, she met professor Zohar Argov, from the department of neurology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, the researcher who first discovered the rare disease in 1984. Although Nazarian did not know anyone personally affected with HIBM, the self-described \”professional volunteer\” knew her involvement with Hadassah Southern California put her in a unique position to increase awareness and raise funds for the condition that seemed to unfairly target her community.
When Georgia Freedman-Harvey\’s son was born with a rare genetic disorder, she and her husband discovered \”the invisibility factor\” for Jewish children with special needs.
Bob Dole. General Norman Schwarzkopf. Harry Belafonte. Robert Goulet. The willingness of such well-known figures to make public their battle with prostate cancer has brought visibility to an issue that until the last few years, lacked the attention, funding and research interest befitting a disease that will strike more than 180,000 men in the United States this year.
Ten years ago, while in the hospital recovering from a stroke, real estate developer Irving Kalsman received visits from several rabbis who came to offer reassurance and support.
In an effort to give men facing prostate cancer a true understanding of the emotional and physical trials in store, Leon Prochnik spares no details.
As founder and chair of Westwood One, the biggest radio network in the country, Norman J. Pattiz has an impact on what\’s carried over the airwaves in the United States and beyond. Now that he is a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, he has an even greater voice in international broadcasting.
Smiling at the memory of being asked to serve as chairman of the board of City of Hope, Jack Suzar confides, \”They caught me in one of the weakest points of my life.\”
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