Adaptation and Innovation: Trends and Developments in American Judaism

Celebrating 10 years of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University… The Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies presents The Schurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies. [Dr. David Ellenson] President of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Author of Between Tradition and Culture: the Dialectics of Jewish Religion and Identity in the Modern World (1994) and Tradition in Transition: Orthodoxy, Halakhah and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity (1990).https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1225/thumbnail.jp

Somatic LKB1 Mutations Promote Cervical Cancer Progression

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the etiologic agent for cervical cancer. Yet, infection with HPV is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer, because most infected women develop transient epithelial dysplasias that spontaneously regress. Progression to invasive cancer has been attributed to diverse host factors such as immune or hormonal status, as no recurrent genetic alterations have been identified in cervical cancers. Thus, the pressing question as to the biological basis of cervical cancer progression has remained unresolved, hampering the development of novel therapies and prognostic tests. Here we show that at least 20% of cervical cancers harbor somatically-acquired mutations in the LKB1 tumor suppressor. Approximately one-half of tumors with mutations harbored single nucleotide substitutions or microdeletions identifiable by exon sequencing, while the other half harbored larger monoallelic or biallelic deletions detectable by multiplex ligation probe amplification (MLPA). Biallelic mutations were identified in most cervical cancer cell lines; HeLa, the first human cell line, harbors a homozygous 25 kb deletion that occurred in vivo. LKB1 inactivation in primary tumors was associated with accelerated disease progression. Median survival was only 13 months for patients with LKB1-deficient tumors, but >100 months for patients with LKB1-wild type tumors (P = 0.015, log rank test; hazard ratio = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.083 to 0.77). LKB1 is thus a major cervical tumor suppressor, demonstrating that acquired genetic alterations drive progression of HPV-induced dysplasias to invasive, lethal cancers. Furthermore, LKB1 status can be exploited clinically to predict disease recurrence

To Reshape the World: Interpretation, Renewal, and Feminist Approaches to Jewish Law and Legal Ruling in America and Israel

This article explores the writings of three prominent contemporary Jewish feminist thinkers—Rachel Adler, Tamar Ross, and Ronit Irshai—on halakhah (Jewish law) and psak (legal rulings). It employs “On Interpretation,” the classic essay written by Shimon Rawidowicz, to frame their works. Rawidowicz had argued that Jewish thinkers in every generation were required to hear the imperative “Interpret or perish,” if Judaism was to maintain its vitality. In our day, no thinkers have done this more than Adler, Ross, and Irshai. They have attempted to reshape the world of halakhah by exposing many of its assumptions and expanding its concerns. There is a tension between “continuation and rebellion, tradition and innovation,” in their work as they seek to create “a new halakhic story.” They see themselves as bearing responsibility for Jewish continuity and spirituality even as they forthrightly acknowledge the novel turns their writings take within the framework of Jewish textual and legal tradition. By bringing their arguments together in dialogue with one another and by discussing their critics, this essay presents and highlights their views in a way that has implications for the moral shape of the Jewish community and Jewish law now and in the future.</jats:p

The Ethical Conundrum of a Jewish and Democratic State

Abstract Critics charge that the humanistic views expressed by the founders of Israel through its Declaration of Independence have been diminished and that an antidemocratic virus has taken root in the State in recent years. Examination of Megillat Ha'atzmaut, the Israeli Declaration of Independence; the debates that swirled around it at the formation of the state; and the concurrent views of Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog on the issue of Israel as a democratic state reveals that these disagreements about the character of Israel as being both “Jewish and democratic” are rooted in ideological positions present in Israel's first years. A failure to resolve them so that democratic values can be affirmed remains an ongoing challenge to the nation.</jats:p