The Cancer, AIDS and Immunology Research Institute at Bar-Ilan University honored Dr. David Sidransky, a pioneer in the molecular genetic detection of cancer.
By GREER FAY CASHMANDavid Sidransky 88 248(photo credit: Courtesy)
THE CANCER, AIDS and Immunology Research (C.A.I.R.) Institute at Bar-Ilan University this week honored Dr. David Sidransky, a leading expert and pioneer in the molecular genetic detection of cancer, by bestowing on him the Dr. Tovi Comet-Walerstein Science Award for 2008. Dr. Sidransky, who hails from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was recognized for his pioneering work in tailoring cancer treatment to correspond with individual cases of the disease. Following the presentation ceremony, Dr. Sidransky delivered the keynote lecture, on "Integration of biomarkers into personalized cancer diagnosis and therapy."
The Director of Head and Neck Cancer Research in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery - at Johns Hopkins, Sidransky is best known for developing a broad-based non-invasive screening test that detects genetic biomarkers for cancer in many bodily fluids. The test, which is being studied in bladder, lung, and head and neck cancers, detects malignant cells in a very early stage, before they can be identified by conventional pathology and cytology methods.
His current research is focused on identifying new genetic changes on smoking-associated tumors. The Dr. Tovi Comet-Walerstein Science Award was established in memory of Cleveland-born Dr. Tovi Comet-Walerstein, a medical researcher who succumbed to cancer more than a decade ago at the age of thirty-eight. Even while receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, she maintained a 24/7 telephone line as a special service for cancer patients, whom she was always ready to advise and encourage.
ALTHOUGH HADASSAH is the largest women's Zionist organization in America, with an amazingly devoted membership, let it not be said that its fund-raising efforts are solely women's work. While indeed, women's work is never done at Hadassah, because the organization is forever introducing new projects, the men's contribution cannot be overlooked. While Hadassah does not have male members, it does have male associates, husbands, brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins of Hadassah activists who, appreciative of what their womenfolk are doing, are no less keen to be involved. That's how Hadassah Associates came into being in 1966. Though not strictly speaking members, they come on Hadassah missions to Israel and initiate and support numerous Hadassah educational, medical and community projects. Current President of the National Committee of Hadassah Associates is Chicago certified accountant and real estate developer Howard Kaplan, who last week led a mission to Israel for a first-hand inspection of Hadassah projects across the country, a visit to an army base, meetings with Israeli business people at the Tefen Industrial Park and a host of other experiences.
IT WAS difficult to decide which lectures to attend at the ESRA (English Speaking Residents Association) 30th anniversary celebrations at Kibbutz Shefayim. What was incredible was the attendance. Not everyone was there from the beginning to the end, especially because of the heavy downpour, but all in all some one thousand people braved the rain to come for an hour or two or maybe even 10. Glasgow-born retired diplomat Neville (Yosef) Lamdan, who was Israel's third Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome, opted to speak about that period in his career, long before the whole business of the beatification of Pius XII became so publicized a bone of contention between the Jewish world and the Vatican, and pondered aloud on the fact that his topic had suddenly become so timely. When he was growing up in his native Glasgow, Lamdan, who is now the director of the Jerusalem-based International Institute for Jewish Genealogy, could not conceive that a Jew would enter a church or a Pope a synagogue - certainly not in his lifetime. He reminisced that one of the trends when he was a boy was having ownership of a science set. When he asked his father for money to buy one, he was refused. In the mid 1980s, when he served at the Israel Embassy in Washington, his mother sent him a science set. He found this extremely strange and telephoned her to complain that she'd sent him a child's toy.
"But you asked for it," she demurred.
"Yes, but I was 10 years old then and now I'm 45," he said, reminding her of his father's refusal.
"But you forgot that he said that he would buy it for you only when the Pope entered a synagogue. Well, that's happened," she retorted.
ONE IS never too old to learn. Case in point is Ben-Gurion University literature and history doctoral student Hanina Tadir, who is a member of Kibbutz Galon. Polish-born Tadir, who came to the Land of Israel without his family, served in the Turkish Army, the Hagana and the IDF and later settled on kibbutz, working like most kibbutzniks in a variety of capacities. In his spare time he wrote poetry and published two books of verse, but never found time to study until he reached the age of 70, when the kibbutz released him from his obligations. Bitten by the learning bug, he completed a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree in literature and history, and now at age 88, encouraged by his four children and 13 grandchildren, he's aiming for the title of Dr. Tadir. He is so enamored with learning that he says he will continue until his dying day.
ISRAEL'S FIRST and so far only Arab government minister, Ghaleb Majadle, is unlikely to serve in a ministerial capacity after the Knesset elections, even if Labor should surprise everyone by winning or if it joins the government coalition. But Majadle, who is a keen advocate of co-existence, will at least go out with a bang in what will be one of the largest events that he will participate in before leaving office in four months time. On November 14, he will join some 3,000 Israeli and Jordanian women who are participating in the Women Building Bridges festival in the Ma'ayanot Valley on the banks of the Jordan River. The women will participate in a march and bicycle ride to the Naharayim Peace Island, but more important perhaps, will join in planting fruit trees supplied by the Jewish National Fund along the Israeli side of the banks of the Jordan River - in memory of Jordan's King Hussein and slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES hope to enhance their image and their popularity by inviting celebrities to special events in the hope that paparazzi will photograph them and publish the photos. For the Herzliya Pituah branch of El Gaucho restaurant, it was the other way around. Argentina's folk song icon Mercedes Sosa, who was a symbol of hope during the oppressive military regime and was forced to spend several years in exile, felt a yearning for a taste of home. She showed up at El Gaucho with an entourage of some 20 people. The management and staff went overboard in their efforts to please the group and were overjoyed to discover that Sosa has a healthy appetite. She ate almost everything on the menu and was as generous with her compliments as the management had been with the size of the portions. She was also gracious about signing autographs for the remainder of the restaurant's clientele, and thrilled everyone by singing a few songs.
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