Jewish Genetic Diseases Awareness Testing

Jewish Genetic Diseases Awareness Testing

Some inherited diseases result when both parents silently carry the same recessive genetic trait. All couples with ANY Jewish ancestry, including interfaith couples, should have pre-conception carrier screening for all Jewish genetic diseases.

Approximately one in four people in the Ashkenazi Jewish population is a carrier of a Jewish genetic disease. A blood test can determine your carrier status.

Doctors and rabbis distribute brochures to assist in educating their patients and congregants about the importance of screening.

Jewish Genetic Diseases Awareness Week was officially launched in 2012. This was a joint project of NCJWC-Toronto Section, the Department of Prenatal Diagnosis and Medical Genetics at Mount Sinai Hospital and Jacob’s Ladder.

Genetic Screening Tests are done for:

• Tay-Sachs Disease
• Canavan Disease
• Familial Dysautonomia
• Niemann-Pick Disease Type A
• Bloom Syndrome
• Franconi Anemia Type C
• Mucolipidosis IV

NCJWC Winnipeg

Winnipeg Section supplies local Rabbis with up-to–date informational brochures to distribute to newly married couples, or for use in pre-marital counselling. We also arrange for a geneticist to speak to the grade 12 biology class at the Gray Academy of Jewish Education annually. Brochures are also distributed to Hillel and Young adult division of Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.

Download Brochure

Download

Donations

Your monetary donations for Jewish Genetic Awareness Program can be made through National Council of Jewish Women of Canada.

For further enquiries please call (204) 339 7291 or email info@ncjwcwinnipeg.org