This early August HWR newsletter reflects the many involvements of FJMC members and friends.

First we have an insightful article on Anemia from Physician Dr. Dana Shani through Dr Steven Mandel.

Then Aaron Ginzberg who is active in the New England Region tells us a bit about his passionate and effective work to remember pre-holocaust communities in Eastern Europe and to involve the current communities.
 
Finally, Myles Simpson introduces himself and his commitment to FJMC and the Foundation for Jewish Life Legacy Initiative as a reminder to all of us FJMC stalwarts and friends that FJMC has been and continues to be important to our personal Jewish journeys as well as the Conservative / Masorti Jewish movement.
 
Please do not miss the overt and underlying messages of all these articles that FJMC continues to be a place that we need to be participating in with our financial support as well as our time.

Be sure to be in touch with Richard Gray, Editor, at rgray@fjmc.org with your articles, comments, appreciation and critiques. Each issue is brought to you by your editorial staff that includes:

• Richard Gray (Editor in Chief)
• Steven Mandel MD (Medical Editor)
• Gary Smith (Wealth Editor)
• Mark Druy (Publisher)

This HWR was sent out on , at approximately 8:30 PM (Eastern and prior to Shabbat).

Anemia happens when other diseases interfere with the body's ability to produce healthy red blood cells or abnormally increase red blood cell breakdown or loss.

Fast facts on anemia

The most common symptom of all types of anemia is a feeling of fatigue and a lack of energy. Other common symptoms may include:

• Paleness
• fast or irregular heartbeat
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• headaches
• Light-headedness

In mild cases, there may be few or no symptoms. Some forms of anemia can have specific symptoms:

• Aplastic anemia:  frequent infections, and gum and skin bleeding, fevers
• B12 or Folic acid deficiency anemia: irritability and a smooth tongue
• Hemolytic anemia: jaundice, dark colored urine, fever, and abdominal pains
• Sickle cell anemia: painful swelling of the feet and hands, fatigue, and jaundice

Causes

The body needs red blood cells to survive. They carry hemoglobin, a complex protein that contains iron molecules. These molecules carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.  There are many types of anemia, and there is no single cause. It can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. Here is a general overview of the common causes of the three main groups of anemia:

1) Anemia caused by blood loss

The most common type of anemia—iron deficiency anemia— falls into this category. It is caused by a shortage of iron, most often through blood loss. Blood loss can be acute and rapid or chronic. Rapid blood loss can include surgery, childbirth, trauma, or a ruptured blood vessel. Chronic blood loss is most common of anemia. It can result from a bleeding stomach ulcer, bleeding colonic polyp or cancer or similar conditions and it is very important to find the cause of the anemia. Other causes of iron deficiency anemia due to blood loss include:

• Gastrointestinal conditions, such as ulcers, hemorrhoids, cancer, or gastritis
• Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs), such as aspirin and ibuprofen
• Menstrual bleeding
• After gastric bypass, there is little or no absorption of Iron from the gut, and young menstruating women who have gastric bypass need to get intravenous iron therapy.

2) Anemia caused by decreased production or faulty red blood cell

Bone marrow is a soft, spongy tissue found in the center of bones. It is essential for the creation of red blood cells as well as white blood cells and platelets. The bone marrow produces stem cells, which develop into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Many diseases can affect bone marrow, including leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma where too many abnormal blood cells are produced and this reduces the normal production of red blood cells. Other anemias caused by decreased or faulty red blood cells include:

• Sickle cell anemia: Because of a genetic mutation red blood cells are misshapen and break down abnormally quickly. The crescent-shaped blood cells can also get stuck in smaller blood vessels, causing painful crisis.
• Iron-deficiency anemia: Too few red blood cells are produced because not enough iron is present in the body. This can be because of a poor diet, menstruation, frequent blood donation, endurance training, certain digestive conditions, such as Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative colitis surgical removal of part of the gut for weight loss or other reasons.
• Bone marrow and stem cell problems: Aplastic anemia, for example, occurs when few or no stem cells are present.
• Thalassemia occurs when red blood cells cannot grow and mature properly because of a genetic mutation common in the Mediterranean basin (beta Thalassemia) or in South East Asia and Africa (Alpha Thalassemia)
• Vitamin deficiency anemia: Vitamin B-12 and folate are both essential to produce red blood cells. If either is deficient, red blood cell production will be too low. Examples include megaloblastic anemia and pernicious anemia. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also affect memory loss and cognition, and is more frequent in the aging population because of poor absorption from the gut…It is important for people to have their Vitamin B12 checked by blood tests periodically, since this condition can be easily corrected.

3) Anemia caused by the destruction of red blood cells

Red blood cells typically have a life span of 120 days in the bloodstream, but they can be destroyed or removed beforehand. One type of anemia that falls into this category is autoimmune hemolytic anemia, where the body's immune system mistakenly identifies its own red blood cells as a foreign substance and attacks them. Excessive hemolysis (red blood cell breakdown) can occur for many reasons, including:

• Infections
• certain drugs, for example, some antibiotics
• Snake or spider venom
• Toxins produced through advanced kidney or liver disease
• An autoimmune disease such as Lupus
• Vascular grafts and prosthetic heart valves
• Clotting disorders
• Enlargement of the spleen

Treatment
Treatment will depend on the type and cause of anemia.

• Iron deficiency anemia: Iron supplements (which are available to buy OTC). However, if the condition is due to loss of blood, the bleeding must be found and stopped!
• Vitamin deficiency anemias: Treatments include dietary supplements and B-12 shots.
• Thalassemia: Treatment includes folic acid supplementation, removal of the spleen, and, sometimes, blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants.
• Anemia of chronic disease: This is anemia associated with a serious, chronic underlying condition. There are no specific treatments, and the focus is on the underlying condition.
• Aplastic anemia: The patient will require blood transfusions and most likely will require bone marrow transplant.
• Sickle cell anemia: Treatment includes oxygen therapy, pain relief, and intravenous fluids. There may also be need for folic acid supplements, and blood transfusions. A cancer drug known as Hydrae is also used.
• Hemolytic anemias: Patients should avoid the medication that may make it worse, and they may receive immunosuppressant drugs such as Prednisone for the treatment of the anemia.

Dana Shani MD, MBA
Hematology/Oncology
178 East 85th St, 4th floor
NYC, NY 10028
Tel: 212 434 3630
Fax 212 434 3639
 
Email: dshani@northwell.edu
 
Northwell Health
Visit us at Northwell.edujewishdokshitsy.org

A Genealogy Hobby Looks Forward
Aaron Ginsburg

In 2006 and 2007, my life changed. I separated from my wife. I created a non-profit organization, I discovered that I enjoyed solving the genealogy problems of others, and I came up with the idea for a concert. I became a volunteer. I made decisions, put ideas into practice, and become a leader. These positioned me with interesting and fulfilling activities after I retired in 2012.
 
From 2006-2008, my genealogy hobby led to my helping the Dokshitsy District in Belarus restore a Jewish cemetery. (It was their idea.) I created a non-profit organization, The Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy. One of my volunteers, Rob Benjamin, contributed writing. It took several years for me to be comfortable writing and speaking without clearing it with Rob.
 
A short video was made in 2010. In 2015, it was voiced-over into Russian by an actress in Kiev so I could show it in Belarus and Ukraine. Guess what? Real actors sound better than real people, especially when they are in a sound studio!
 
In June 2007, I had an epiphany. I reunited a family (not mine) separated by the Holocaust after 80 years. I used Skype chat to contact people whose last name was Pokrassa, and soon heard back from Dmitry Pokras in Kiev. His family, believed to have died in the Shoah, survived. I wept…realizing that it was a match with the family of Long Island’s Gary Pokrassa. Now people hire me to help with their family history. It is not rocket science, but there is a learning curve. I look for the low hanging fruit. The tortoise always wins this race!
 
Also in June 2007, while singing her songs in the shower, I came up with the idea for a Naomi Shemer Memorial Concert, which took place in January 2015 at Temple Israel in Sharon MA.
 
Three years ago, I started going to my home town, Newport RI, on most Shabbats. I created a Jewish Newport blog to get my landsmen interested in their history, as opposed to the Colonial American history that dominates Touro Synagogue. I rack my brains to come up with material that is interesting. Sometimes it is serious, other times amusing. I often use the Rabbi’s sermon and the parsha as a starting point.
 
In April 2018, I went to Newport a few days before departing for Europe. Rabbi Marc Mandel said,“A Jew in Germany told a friend that it was dangerous to wear a kippa in Germany. The friend, an Israeli-Arab, tried to prove that this was not true. The test ended badly and the friend was beaten up.”  I decided to wear a kippa during my trip. I was mostly ignored. In Warsaw’s Old Town, I was taunted with “Juden Raus!” (Jews Out) by a soccer fan who was part of a large crowd gathered to celebrate a victory.
 
The Newport blog led me to submit articles to a couple of local Jewish newspapers, the Boston Jewish Advocate and the Rhode Island Jewish Voice. The editors appreciated my work, and I continued to submit articles. This has helped me to cultivate a new skill, trying to tell a story in the space available. Oops! I think I have used up my allotted space in this HWR issue.  Please contact me if you would like to extend the conversation. 

Some of the sites I am working on are listed below:

• yousaypokrassa https://sites.google.com/site/yousaypokrassa/home
• shtetl jewishdokshitsy.org
• Jewish Newport https://jewishnewport.blogspot.com
• Rhode Island Jewish Voice http://www.jvhri.org/stories/around-the-seder-table-in-newport,4641?

The pictures below give a sense of the real people in Eastern Europe whose lives are now involved with these projects as well as the beauty of the countryside

My FJMC Commitment
Myles Simpson

Why did Gail and I become Legacy Society Members?

Ever since I attended my first FJMC International Convention in 1997, I knew that FJMC was an organization that was worthy of my time and support.  Over the past 20 years my passion for, and my commitment to, FJMC has only grown!
 
As parents, Gail and I worked hard to raise our children in a Jewish home with Jewish values, and to nurture within them a love for their religion, traditions, and culture.  Our desire has always been to have our children, our grandchildren, and their children grow up as engaged Conservative Jews. Increasingly, however, we see these goals threatened by the growing trends of secularism throughout our society. We know that synagogue affiliation has dramatically decreased, intermarriage has significantly increased, and many of the younger generations are content to identify as cultural Jews but not be observant or involved in the Jewish community.

I believe that FJMC is the one organization that can reverse these trends!  FJMC teaches men to be role models for their families and enables them to engage their families in Jewish life in meaningful ways, building Jewish communities within and beyond their synagogues.
 

Please be in touch with my friend and Foundation Chair Gary Smith gsmith@fjmc.org to learn more about participating with a Legacy commitment like mine.

This issue is prepared by a bunch of guys who are continuing to GIVE BACK to FJMC.  We invite you to also give back to FJMC through your participation and most importantly through donations supporting FJMC as Friends of FJMC.  Participate by clicking on “Become a Friend of FJMC” on www.FJMC.org or contact Gary Smith at gsmith@fjmc.org.

Send your comments to Richard Gray at rgray@fjmc.org.  We want to hear from you. HWR is a publication of the FJMC.

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