Last August, Lori Paulsen\’s 4-year-old son, Aaron, was diagnosed with Wilms\’ tumor, a rare form of kidney cancer. Soon afterward, a friend offered to call Chai Lifeline on her behalf.
The Arrowsmith Program uses cognitive exercises designed to strengthen the underlying brain functions responsible for learning disabilities. While new to the United States, the program has been offered in private schools in Canada for 30 years, among others by the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
It was a given that Benjy Rabin, 9, would spend part of his summers at Camp Ramah as soon as he was old enough. His father is a Ramah alum, and so are his older brother and sister.
Dr. Beth Y. Karlan is the director of the Cedars-Sinai Women\’s Cancer Research Institute at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. Her specialty is ovarian cancer, the deadliest of gynecologic cancers and one that is diagnosed in more than 22,000 women annually.
A collaborative project of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Jewish Family Service and seven other Jewish community agencies, HaMercaz (which means \”the center\”) assists families with children up to age 21 who have developmental and learning disabilities such as autism, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or mental retardation. The two-year-old program serves as a \”one-stop-shop\” for families, providing guidance, support, education and referrals. Programs include a toll-free warmline; support groups for mothers, fathers and grandparents; and referrals to agencies that can provide assistance, such as interest-free loans or parent respite.
Dr. Francine Kaufman has seen the incidence of diabetes skyrocket in the last 30 years. The pediatric endocrinologist is director of the Comprehensive Childhood Diabetes Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and she says the disease\’s local increase is part of a worldwide phenomenon. Now Kaufman is turning to the small screen to bring attention to this global epidemic in a one-hour, commercial-free Discovery Health documentary narrated by actress Glenn Close, \”Diabetes: A Global Epidemic,\” on Sunday, Nov. 18.
The Safety Kid program — its full name is the Aleinu Julis Child Safety Program — was developed by the Aleinu Family Resource Center, the arm of Jewish Family Service that reaches out to the Orthodox community.
The Day School Leadership Through Teaching program or DeLeT, which means \”door\” in Hebrew, is a 13-month fellowship designed to recruit and train high-caliber Jewish day school teachers. The program is offered in Los Angeles and San Francisco through the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) and at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Shortly after Janet Halbert completed treatment for breast cancer in 2005, a friend was diagnosed with the disease. The friend asked Halbert if she had any tips for easing the chemotherapy experience. \”I told her I had some products and some ideas and things that might be helpful,\” Halbert said.
This year in Los Angeles, the Reform Movement\’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Region ordained 16 new rabbis. The Conservative Movement\’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies ordained 10. And the Academy for Jewish Religion, California (AJR, CA) ordained 11. Never heard of the AJR, CA? You\’re not alone. Just six years old, it remains unknown to many in the Jewish community, though its impact is growing rapidly.
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