Personal Growth and Life Satisfaction during Fertility Treatment-A Comparison between Arab and Jewish Women.

Coping with difficulty conceiving and the ensuing fertility treatments is a stressful experience that impacts many aspects of women's lives. On the basis of Lazarus and Folkman's model of stress and coping and Schaefer and Moos's model of personal growth, and in view of the sparse literature on cultural aspects of infertility and personal growth, this study examined the relationship between stress on the one hand and personal growth and life satisfaction on the other among Arab and Jewish Israeli women. Furthermore, it investigated the moderating role played by perceived stigma, coping flexibility, cultural orientation (individualism and collectivism), and ethnicity. Two hundred five Arab and Jewish Israeli women undergoing fertility treatment completed self-report questionnaires. The results show that Arab women reported higher levels of personal growth and individualism than Jewish women. In the whole sample, a linear negative relationship was found between stress and life satisfaction, and a curvilinear relationship was found between stress and personal growth. In addition, perceived stigma, collectivism, individualism, and coping flexibility were found to moderate the association between perceived stress and personal growth. The findings provide further understanding of personal growth in the context of infertility, showing that personal resources and perceptions are more important than cultural differences in this regard.

Population-based BRCA1/2 testing programmes are highly acceptable in the Jewish community: results of the JeneScreen Study.

BACKGROUND: Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) people have a higher incidence of BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (PVs) than unselected populations. Three BRCA-Jewish founder mutations (B-JFMs) comprise >90% of BRCA1/2 PVs in AJ people. Personal/family cancer history-based testing misses ≥50% of people with B-JFM. METHODS: We compared two population-based B-JFM screening programmes in Australia-using (1) an online tool (Sydney) and (2) in-person group sessions (Melbourne). RESULTS: Of 2167 Jewish people tested (Sydney n=594; Melbourne n=1573), 1.3% (n=28) have a B-JFM, only 2 of whom had a significant cancer family history (Manchester score ≥12). Pretest anxiety scores were normal (mean 9.9±3.5 (6-24)), with no significant post-result change (9.5±3.3). Decisional regret (mean 7.4±13.0 (0-100)), test-related distress (mean 0.8+/2.2 (0-30)) and positive experiences (reverse-scored) (mean 3.4±4.5 (1-20)) scores were low, with no significant differences between Sydney and Melbourne participants. Post-education knowledge was good overall (mean 11.8/15 (±2.9)) and significantly higher in Melbourne than Sydney. Post-result knowledge was the same (mean 11.7 (±2.4) vs 11.2 (±2.4)). Participants with a B-JFM had higher post-result anxiety and test-related distress and lower positive experiences, than those without a B-JFM, but scores were within the normal range. Family cancer history did not significantly affect knowledge or anxiety, or pretest perception of B-JFM or cancer risks. Most participants (93%) were satisfied/very satisfied with the programme. CONCLUSION: Both B-JFM screening programmes are highly acceptable to Australian Jewish communities. The programme enabled identification of several individuals who were previously unaware they have a B-JFM, many of whom would have been ineligible for current criteria-based testing in Australia.

Perceived academic challenges of Jewish and Arab undergraduates during the first wave of COVID-19.

This study examined differences between Arab and Jewish undergraduate students in their perceived academic challenges, COVID-19-related concerns, perceived social support and trust in the university and the government. It also examined factors associated with perceived academic challenges and the moderating role of trust in the university in the associations between COVID-19-related concerns and perceived academic challenges. The sample consisted of 2751 students: 2291 (83%) Jewish, 398 (15%) Arab and 61 (2%) 'other'. Arab students reported higher COVID-19-related concerns and perceived academic challenges, and lower levels of perceived social support and trust in university and government than did Jewish students. Both Jewish and Arab students identified COVID-19-related concerns as a stress-vulnerability factor for perceived academic challenges, whereas perceived social support and trust in the university were identified as resources for perceived academic challenges. No support was found for the role of trust in government in the face of perceived academic challenges nor for the moderating role of trust in the university in the associations between COVID-19-related concerns and perceived academic challenges. In conclusion, the need of Arab students for emotional and academic support needs to be acknowledged as part of the efforts to promote academic success during the pandemic.

Challenges, Opportunities, and Coping in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Jewish Communities around the World.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted more than two years and included several waves, the present study focused on Jewish communities around the world, in order to understand the role of community during the pandemic. This study focused on the community mechanisms that helped community members to cope with the pandemic. To that end, between October 2021 and July 2022, in-person interviews were conducted with leaders and members of the following communities: Budapest, Hungary; Subotica, Serbia; Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Vilna, Lithuania; Buenos Aires, Rosario, Salta, and Ushuaia in Argentina; and Mexico City and Cancun in Mexico. Each interview lasted between 45 min and 1.5 h. All of the interviews were audio-recorded and transcripts of those recordings were prepared. Three major themes emerged from the interviews: challenges, coping, and opportunities. Most of these themes were common to the different communities around the world. The findings of this work are discussed in terms of the concept of sense of community and resiliency theories.

The Effect of Kosher Determinants of Beef on Its Color, Texture Profile and Sensory Evaluation.

Traditional ritual slaughter is an underlying practice in religious Jewish communities and it translates into eating in accordance with core beliefs. This paper aims to comprehensively analyze factors determining the kosher status of beef (sex, slaughter method, and muscle type) and assess their impact on selected quality properties, such as color or texture profile. Sensory evaluation was also performed. The muscles were obtained from 80 carcasses (50% of heifers and 50% of young bulls). The experimental results indicate that each studied kosherness determinant influenced beef quality properties. The process of koshering caused the darkening of beef and lowered the share of color parameters red (a*) and yellow (b*). The influence of the type of slaughter on the values of adhesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness of beef was confirmed; higher values were mostly obtained in the muscles of cattle from kosher slaughter. As to sensory evaluation, the study showed that in the case of muscle type, the sex and slaughter method positively influenced only some of the properties.

Religious Beliefs, Trust In Public Figures, And Adherence to COVID-19 Health Guidelines among American Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Jews.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant health crisis highlighted the lack of scholarly understanding of the effects of sociocultural factors and religious beliefs on compliance with public health guidelines. Orthodox Jews in particular were suspected of mistrusting medical experts and were singled out for alleged non-compliance with COVID-19 health guidelines. We surveyed American Jews (N = 1,141) during the early stages of the pandemic about their religious beliefs connected with the pandemic, trust in relevant public figures, and compliance with health guidelines to examine whether and how these factors are related. Generally, participants expressed high levels of trust in scientists, medical professionals, and religious leaders and a high degree of adherence to health guidelines. We examined how trust varies as a function of sociodemographic features, religious affiliation, and health-related religious beliefs (i.e., spiritual health locus of control). Overall, our research underscores the relevance of religious beliefs and trust in public figures to adherence to health guidelines and public health messaging.

Differences in Toxicity Between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews With Colon Cancer Treated With Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Prospective Study.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Ethnicity of cancer patients is increasingly being recognized as an important factor that may influence intergroup variation in toxicity and efficacy of chemotherapy. Data from our institution suggested that differences in chemotherapy-associated toxicity are not limited to distanced ethnic subgroups, such as Caucasians, Afro-Americans, or Asians, but may exist even between two closely related Caucasian ethnic subgroups, such as Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. This study aimed to explore differences in severity and frequency of various side effects, including neurotoxicity between patients from the two Jewish subgroups receiving oxaliplatin-containing adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer (CC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We recruited 75 patients, with performance status 0-1 and no background of neuropathy between 2012 and 2016. All patients completed a neurotoxicity questionnaire (NQ) and a QoL questionnaire (QoLQ) at baseline and the NQ also at each treatment cycle; during follow up, patients filled out the NQ and the QoLQ every four months for a total of one year. RESULTS: Of the 75 participants, 66 were evaluable for the study including 34 (52%) Sephardic and 32 (48%) Ashkenazi Jews. Grade ≥2 vomiting and diarrhea occurred more often in Sephardic than in Ashkenazi patients (p=0.008 and 0.012, respectively). Of the 66 evaluable patients, 11 (17%) developed grade 3 neurotoxicity; of these, 9 were Sephardic and 2 were Ashkenazi (p=0.028). There were no significant differences in the dynamics of QoL between both subgroups. CONCLUSION: Sephardic patients receiving oxaliplatin-containing regimens are at an increased risk for neurotoxicity and other side effects as compared to their Ashkenazi counterparts.

The Jew's penis: circumcision and sexual pathology in eighteenth-century England.

This essay explores the contradictory, prejudicial attitudes towards circumcision and Jewish male sexuality circulating in eighteenth-century English print culture. I argue that while Jewish men had long been accused of lustfulness, effeminacy and sexual deviance, eighteenth-century culture added to these concerns a unique interest in sexual pathology, borne in part from the growing medical anxiety around venereal disease. Consequently, while Jewish men were still widely condemned for their lechery, they were also increasingly ridiculed for a range of penile and sexual disorders that were believed to make sex unsatisfying, difficult or even impossible-most notably impotence, a condition often associated with venereal disease. I link these paradoxical eighteenth-century characterisations of Jewish male sexuality with a similarly paradoxical understanding of circumcision as a procedure that could prevent, but also cause, various penile or sexual disorders. I conclude that these prejudices not only constitute an example of what Sander Gilman has identified as the 'bipolar' nature of anti-Semitism; they also indicate a darker trend towards the pathologising of the Jewish body.

Meeting the ancestors.

DNA from a medieval German cemetery opens a window on the history of today's largest Jewish population.

[Against oblivion: Remembering the first Jewish women doctors of the German Society for Internal Medicine]. / Gegen das Vergessen: Jüdische Ärztinnen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin im Porträt.

In 1933, the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) willingly adapted to the ideology and politics of the Nazi regime. Seven members of the Society were Jewish women doctors, women making up 1 % of all members by that time. By pursuing a career in medicine, these women refused to take on the traditional woman's role, opting instead for an unusual path in life and making the medical profession their central mission despite difficult conditions. Under Nazi dictatorship, they were deprived of their livelihood, disenfranchised, persecuted and forced into exile. While this also applies to their male colleagues, Jewish women doctors are considerably less visible. This article presents and contextualises their biographies in order to increase their visibility and integrate them more explicitly into today's culture of remembrance.

Habituation of Fear-Israeli-Jewish Population during Protracted Belligerence.

The identification of demographic factors of vulnerability and resilience in communities facing belligerent conflicts is increasingly relevant today. This representative study aims to examine the effect of protracted violence on the level of fear of the overall Israeli-Jewish population, and the role of the conflict on the connection between socio-economic factors and fears. Sixty-six representative samples were identified and surveyed from 2001 to 2019 (n = 37,190) that occurred during (n = 14,362) and between (n = 22,828) seven conflicts and non-conflict periods. Results show that during military conflicts, civilians declared less fears of physical injury comparing routine time; a slow trend of decline in the level of fears over time was observed; during routine periods, fear was associated with female-gender and with the lowest income level group. Ultra-orthodox and Religious respondents had significantly less fear than the secular and traditional respondents. During military conflicts, the results changed significantly, mainly for the lowest income group, women and ultra-orthodox.

Hesitant and anti-vaccination groups: A qualitative study on their perceptions and attitudes regarding vaccinations and their reluctance to participate in academic research- an example during a measles outbreak among a group of Jewish parents in Israel.

Background: Vaccination is widespread in Western countries and, overall, there is a high vaccination rate. However, immunization is still an enduring challenge. In recent years, the number of parents who choose to delay or refuse vaccines has risen. Objectives: (1) to identify the perceptions and attitudes of hesitant and anti-vaccination parents regarding vaccination in general, and vaccinating their children in particular and; (2) to describe the responses of potential participants to the request to participate in academic research regarding their perceptions and attitudes on the subject of vaccines. Methods: The research employs the qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological method using two research tools: (1) in-depth interviews with 7 hesitant and 11 anti-vaccination Jewish parents in Israel; and (2) the researchers' field notes from this study process, which describe the responses of 32 potential participants to the request to participate in this academic research. Results: The main findings indicate that while most of the interviewees admit to the efficacy of vaccines in preventing diseases, they oppose the way in which vaccines are promoted-based on providing partial information and disregarding parents' concerns and questions. Therefore, they demand transparency about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. The findings also point to a paradoxical finding. On the one hand, these groups claim that health organizations do not understand their position, referring to them as "science-deniers", even though they are not. On the other hand, these parents choose to refrain from participating in scientific studies and voicing their opinions, thereby perpetuating the situation of being misunderstood. Conclusion: Hesitant and anti-vaccination groups express mistrust in academic institutions and health organizations. Therefore, an effective dialogue that would include hesitant and anti-vaccination groups, the academy, and health organizations may contribute to a better understanding of the barriers that prevent these groups from getting vaccinated or vaccinating their children and promote public health.

Ashkenazi Anxieties: A Transnational Social History of Jewish Genetic Admixture Modeling, 1971-1986.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, population geneticists sought computational solutions to integrate greater numbers of genetic traits into their debates about the ancestral relationships of human groups. At the same time, geneticists' longstanding assumptions about Jewish communities, especially Ashkenazim, were challenged by a series of social, political, and intellectual developments. In Israel, the entrenched cultural and political dominance of Ashkenazi Jews faced major social upheaval. Meanwhile, to counteract lingering anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States, Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe and Raphael Patai and Jennifer Patai Wing's The Myth of the Jewish Race argued that Jewish identity was not connected to biological ancestry from the ancient Israelites. Drawing on scientific publications and archived correspondence, this article reconstructs a transnational social history showing how geneticists responded to these shifting claims about Ashkenazi identity and ancestry. Many argued that these claims could be tested using new statistical models, which provided allegedly more "objective" estimates of ancestral gene frequencies and histories of population admixture. However, they simultaneously engaged in heated debates over the relative superiority of competing statistical approaches. These debates reveal how the transnational reverberations of Israeli ethnic politics and Euro-American anti-Semitism affected the development of new calculations for genetic admixture, permanently shifting the assumptions of population genetic research on Jewish populations as well as other human groups.

Dehumanization and mass violence: A study of mental state language in Nazi propaganda (1927-1945).

Dehumanization is frequently cited as a precursor to mass violence, but quantitative support for this notion is scarce. The present work provides such support by examining the dehumanization of Jews in Nazi propaganda. Our linguistic analysis suggests that Jews were progressively denied the capacity for fundamentally human mental experiences leading up to the Holocaust. Given that the recognition of another's mental experience promotes moral concern, these results are consistent with the theory that dehumanization facilitates violence by disengaging moral concern. However, after the onset of the Holocaust, our results suggest that Jews were attributed a greater capacity for agentic mental states. We speculate this may reflect a process of demonization in which Nazi propagandists portrayed the Jews as highly capable of planning and intentionality while nonetheless possessing a subhuman moral character. These suggestive results paint a nuanced portrait of the temporal dynamics of dehumanization during the Holocaust and provide impetus for further empirical scrutiny of dehumanization in ecologically valid contexts.

The landscape of medical care consumption in Israel: a nationwide population cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The Ecology of medical care was first published in 1961. The graphical square model showed that 75% of the population in the US and England experience a feeling of illness during a given month, 25% seek medical help and only one percent are hospitalized. In 2001, Green and colleagues found the same findings despite the many changes that occurred over the past decades. The frequency of illness, the desire for assistance and the frequency of seeking and getting medical assistance may differ in different populations due to cultural, economic, social, demographic background and local Health policy. This work describes the ecology of medical care consumption in Israel for the first time and examines the socio-demographic effects on consumption. METHODS: This is a Nationwide cross-sectional study. A telephone survey was conducted among a representative sample of the adult population (> 15 years) in Israel. Subjective morbidity rate in the preceding month, the rate of those considering medical assistance and those who got assistance were calculated. Correlation between socio-demographic variables and patterns of morbidity and medical care consumption was examined using a t-test and chi square for continuous quantitative and categorical variables. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1862 people participated; 49.5% reported having symptoms in the previous month, 45% considered seeking medical advice, 35.2% sought out medical assistance and only 1.5% were hospitalized. The vast majority chose to contact their family physician (58%) and the primary care setting provided their needs in 80% of the cases; Subjective morbidity and medical care consumption differed significantly between Israeli Jews and Arabs. Gaps in the availability of medical services were observed as residents of the periphery forewent medical services significantly more than others (OR = 1.42, p = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Subjective morbidity is less common in Israel than in other countries, but paradoxically consumption of medical services is higher. An Israeli who feels ill will usually consider receiving assistance and will indeed receive assistance in most cases. However, a greater tendency to forego medical services in the periphery indicates barriers and inequality in the provision of health services. Different cultural perceptions, lack of knowledge and low accessibility to medical services in the periphery probably contribute to the contrast shown between low consumption of medical services and high prevalence of chronic illness in Arab society. The prevailing preference for family medicine and its ability to deal with most requests for assistance suggest that strengthening family medicine in the periphery may reduce those barriers and inequalities.

Social and structural determinants of emergency department use among Arab and Jewish patients in Jerusalem.

BACKGROUND: A growing body of research demonstrates that economic conditions and racial and ethnic disparities result in excessive overuse of emergency departments (EDs) by a small group of socioeconomically marginalized residents. Knowledge and understanding of these issues on the part of the healthcare team can promote equality by providing structurally competent care. This study aims to identify the major social and structural factors related to patterns of ED visits by Arab and Jewish patients in Israel, where access to health services is covered by universal national health insurance. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using questionnaires of ED patients in a tertiary care medical center in Jerusalem. The hospital is the largest of the three EDs in Jerusalem with over 90,000 adult patient visits a year. The sample was stratified by ethnicity, including 257 Jewish patients and 170 Arab patients. The outcome variable was repeat visits for the same reason to the ED within 30 days. RESULTS: There were differences between Jewish and Arab patients' social and structural characteristics, including health status, socioeconomic status, feeling of safety, and social support. There were also significant differences in some of the characteristics of health service utilization patterns, including ED repeat visits, language barriers when seeking healthcare in the community, and seeking information about medical rights. The variables associated with repeat visits were different between the two groups: among the Arab patients, repeat visits to the ED were associated with concerns about personal safety, whereas among the Jewish patients, they were associated with poverty. CONCLUSION: The study illustrates the gaps that exist between the Arab and Jewish population in Israel. The findings demonstrated significant differences between populations in both health status and access to health services. In addition, an association was found in each ethnic group between different structural factors and repeat ED requests. This study supports previous theories and findings of the relationship between structural and social factors and patterns of health services utilization.

Human genetics: A tale of two historical Jewish communities.

The first studies to retrieve genome-wide data from two Medieval European Jewish communities from England and Germany illustrate the complex interplay of ancestry, disease, religion, culture and ethics.

Ethnic Differences in Socioeconomic and Health Determinants Related to Self-Rated Health Status: A Study on Community-Dwelling Israeli Jews and Arabs in Old Age.

Self-rated health (SRH) is widely used as a proxy for general health status. In old age, SRH has been found to be a strong predictor of morbidity, physical functioning, recovery from illness, use of health services, and mortality. This study was designed to examine differences in socioeconomic and health determinants related to self-rated health status among community-dwelling Jews and Arabs aged 65+ years. Cross-sectional data from 2011 on such Jews and Arabs were extracted from reprehensive National Surveys. The association between socioeconomic and health factors with poor SRH was estimated using three hierarchical logistic regression models. The majority of the respondents were Jews (86%), with a mean age of 73.1 (±6.3) years. The study revealed that older Arabs are disadvantaged according to almost every socioeconomic and health indicator compared to Jews. Poor SRH was significantly associated with age (OR = 1.03, p = 0.002), ethnicity (Jews OR = 2.62, p < 0.001), unemployment/retirement (OR = 2.03, p < 0.001), low income (OR = 3.03, p < 0.001), low education (OR = 1.37, p = 0.013), absence of physical activity (OR = 2.17, p < 0.001), dentures (OR = 1.40, p = 0.002), and prevalence of one or more chronic diseases (OR = 4.06, p < 0.001). The findings therefore indicated that these factors need to be detected and focused on by health professionals in order to improve the population's general health status.

[Context of the emigration of Jewish neurologists (1933-1939)]. / Rahmenbedingungen der Emigration jüdischer Neurologinnen und Neurologen (1933­1939).

This article focuses on the historical context of the emigration of "Jewish" doctors during the "Third Reich". The approximately 9000 Jewish physicians, who were still able to emigrate, represented 17% of the German medical profession in 1933. Around three quarters of them left the German Reich by 1939, mainly for the USA, Palestine and Great Britain. Initially, Jewish organizations fueled hopes of a temporary exile; however, in the wake of the events of 1938 ("Anschluss" of Austria, failure of the Evian Conference, establishment of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration headed by Adolf Eichmann in Vienna, maximization of economic plundering etc.) emigration via the intermediate step of forced emigration had turned into a life-saving flight. Scientists could appeal to special aid organizations for support. Among the best known are the Emergency Community of German Scientists Abroad initiated in Zurich, the Academic Assistance Council founded in England, from which originated the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning as well as the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars created in New York. Their help was often subject to criteria, such as publication performance, scientific reputation and age. Promising researchers who were awarded a scholarship before 1933 could rely on a commitment from the Rockefeller Foundation. The historical analysis of options and motivations but also of restrictions and impediments affecting the decision-making process to emigrate, provides the basis for a retrospective approach to individual hardships and fates.

["We have to get rid of the Jews, either way": victims of violence among the neuroscientists]. / "Mit den Juden muß so oder so Schluß gemacht werden": Gewaltopfer unter den Neurowissenschaftlerinnen und Neurowissenschaftlern.

Neurologists as victims of National Socialist extermination policies have been rarely addressed as a special group in historical research. On the basis of archival documents and biographical literature, this essay presents 9 exemplary fates of a group of victims of violence whose number and structure so far cannot be estimated. These neurologists died in the ghettos of Lwów (e.g. Lucja Frey) and Theresienstadt (Alexander Spitzer/Vienna), were murdered in the concentration or extermination camps of Mauthausen (e.g. Raphael Weichbrodt/Frankfurt, Hans Pollnow/Berlin) and Auschwitz (e.g. Otto Sittig/Prague), or were executed in the East (e.g. Arthur Simons/Berlin). Others whose attempts to emigrate failed or whose deportation was imminent, chose to commit suicide. This group included the neuroserologist Felix Plaut (Munich), the encephalitis researcher Felix Stern (Göttingen), and presumably Fritz Chotzen (Breslau). In all these cases it was an eponym or a relationship to university medicine that prompted the investigations; however, the fate of innumerable colleagues employed in communal departments and medical practices remains unknown to date. Future studies will have to undertake a deeper look at the suffering of neuroscientists who perished in the Holocaust.