Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich is the health and science reporter at The Jerusalem Post . She has been writing for the paper since February 1973. She has published over 31,000 news stories, features and columns as a Post journalist – more than any other journalist in the world. A Master's degree graduate of Columbia University in New York who made aliyah immediately after completing her studies and within weeks joined the paper, she has a strong background in biology but received her BA and MA in political science because she could not bear to kill animals for lab experiments. She ravenously reads professional medical and science journals. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University – the first Israeli newspaper reporter to do so – in November 2015 and has received numerous awards such as the Hadassah Women’s Organization Women of Distinction Award in the Knesset, Yeshiva University in Israel’s community service award and Tishkofet’s public service award. She is also a fluent English and Hebrew translator and editor in her specialized fields.

 A woman with diabetes is seen using an injection (Illustrative).

Can young diabetics safely observe Jewish fasts? Insulin pump tweaks can help, Israeli study finds

Women sit together to enjoy a pizza (illustrative)

Eating with someone you love could help your body regulate blood sugar, Israeli study finds

THE NORMAL, healthy cellular architecture of the inner ear.

Israeli scientists help solve genetic mystery linking hearing loss and gray hair


Using babies, Israeli study reveals why AI fails to truly understand animal calls

Even as AI masters human language, a groundbreaking Israeli study reveals a fundamental flaw in how AI decodes the animal kingdom: It hears the volume and pitch, but misses the point.

German shepherd barking (illustrative)

'I had not truly come home': Israeli psychologist turns Gaza, Lebanon battlefield trauma into art

After more than 400 days of reserve duty in Gaza and Lebanon, psychologist Michael Feuerstein turned his battlefield experiences into art exploring trauma, healing, and the journey home.

DRAWING: MICHAEL sunk in the sand of the battlefield.

The Ebenezer Scrooge model: Can Yom Kippur really bring repentance and change?

From Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge to modern psychology, the journey from remorse to lasting behavioral change reveals why Yom Kippur can be both a reckoning and a starting point.

YOM KIPPUR asks us to confront who we were, who we have become, and who we might yet become.

Enduring the tragedy of loss, Israeli families of suicide victims struggle to find a path to life

Bishvil Hahayim was officially founded in 2000, but founders worked for several years beforehand to create an organization that would help families and prevent these calamities.

Illustrative image of a head, made of crumpled paper, looking down on a black background.

'Sponge of the sea': Israeli researchers develop aerogel that captures, breaks down oil spills

BGU researchers created an aerogel that could capture oil spills while helping oil-eating bacteria degrade the pollutants.

Israeli soldiers clean tar off the Palmachim beach following an offshore oil spill which drenched most of the Israeli coastline, February 22, 2021

Modern human men evolved unique hip 'spring' for efficient walking, Israeli-led study finds

A new Tel Aviv University study challenges assumptions about the Neanderthal pelvis, finding that modern human males evolved a distinct walking mechanism.

A reconstruction of the skeleton.

How does breathing alter the brain? Inside the science of sighs with a world-leading neuroscientist

You are doing it right now, and until I mentioned it, you were not aware of it. We all take breathing for granted. We tend to think of it as the body’s background software.

An image of the human brain

New robot helps Israeli surgeons crush kidney stones without the splash

But now there is an even better method to crush kidney stones, and Israel is one of only about 11 countries around the world that have the new technology.

Kidney Disease.

Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Israeli scientists find carp can resist a deadly virus

For carp farmers around the world, the holiday favorite has a serious enemy: they are susceptible to several serious viral, parasitic, and bacterial diseases that can reduce their numbers.

Prof. Lior David holds a small fishbowl with carps.

Straight from the horse’s mouth: New Israeli AI helps horses tell us when they are in pain

The research found a solution to an enduring challenge in both veterinary and human medicine: how to identify pain and distress in individuals who cannot communicate what they are experiencing. 

A new AI framework, known as SHIC-XE, developed to detect signs of pain in horses