c. 2003 Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ People of all faiths are victimized by breast cancer. But descendants of Ashkenazi Jews have a higher incidence than most other groups, according to Carla Mansfield, a genetic counselor with the Comprehensive Cancer Institute here.

“One of 40 women of Ashkenazi Jews have the gene which, if mutated, can cause breast cancer,” Mansfield told a gathering at Huntsville’s Temple B’nai Sholom early this month. “That is compared to one in 800 for the general population. Both men and women can carry the gene (named BRCA1 and BRCA2).”

While that could be construed as bad news for the Jewish community, Mansfield also said only 10 percent of breast cancers develop because of hereditary reasons. She assured the group that mutation of the breast cancer gene is “quite rare,” but urged those who have a history of breast cancer in their family to consider screening for the gene.

The Temple’s Sisterhood group is selling L’Chaim Pins to increase awareness of the disease. “L’Chaim” is Hebrew for “To Life.”

Nearly 220,000 women are diagnosed in the United States each year with breast cancer, and about 47,000 of them die from it, said Mansfield. It is the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 35 and 54, she said.

The Temple Sisterhood chapter has sold the L’Chaim Pins since 1995 and has raised several thousand dollars since then. Half is given to the national Susan B. Komen Foundation for research and half to the Liz Hurley Breast Cancer Foundation in Huntsville each year.

Judy Stokes, director of the L’Chaim Pin sales, said the program benefits other women besides Ashkenazi Jews. “It crosses all boundaries and affects women of all faiths,” Stokes said. “We want people to purchase the pins in honor of the women in their lives or to remember those who have died from breast cancer.”

The Temple Sisterhood’s pin project will be honored at the national Jewish Sisterhood organization’s annual convention in Minnesota in November when it receives the Or Ami Award given for “outreach, content and the act of giving,” Stokes said.

Last February, the Sisterhood presented the Komen and Hurley foundations with checks for $1,000 each.

Sisterhood member Sharon Kunitz designed the pin, which has a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon imposed on a blue Hebrew “chai” symbol.

(Editors: The pins, which cost $7.50 each for one to five pins, with $2.50 for shipping and handling, may be ordered from the temple at 103 Lincoln St. in Huntsville, or via the group’s Web site, http://home.hiwaay.net/~tbsholom.)

DEA END BETOWT