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Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz
In the urban communities of medieval Germany and northern France, the beliefs, observances, and practices of Jews allowed them to create and define their communities on their own terms as well as in relation to the surrounding Christian society. Although medieval Jewish texts were written by a learned elite, the laity also observed many religious rituals as part of their everyday life. InPracticing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz, Elisheva Baumgarten asks how Jews, especially those who were not learned, expressed their belonging to a minority community and how their convictions and deeds were made apparent to both their Jewish peers and the Christian majority.
Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenazprovides a social history of religious practice in context, particularly with regard to the ways Jews and Christians, separately and jointly, treated their male and female members. Medieval Jews often shared practices and beliefs with their Christian neighbors, and numerous notions and norms were appropriated by one community from the other. By depicting a dynamic interfaith landscape and a diverse representation of believers, Baumgarten offers a fresh assessment of Jewish practice and the shared elements that composed the piety of Jews in relation to their Christian neighbors.
eBook
Collected essays
Written at different times and for different audiences - some for scholars of rabbinic literature, others for readers with a less specialist interest - the essays gathered in this volume nevertheless have an inner coherence, reflecting author Haym Soloveitchik's lifelong interest in the history of halakhah and the unfolding of halakhic ideas.
Book
Pinkas, Kahal, and the Mediene
This comparative analysis of the records of four Ashkenazi communities in the Dutch Republic of the eighteenth century reveals new insights into the administrative structures and processes of these communities and into the records themselves.
eBook
The Origins of Ashkenazi Jews: Can Genetics Help Resolve an Enduring Historical Mystery?
Since the discovery of DNA, which contains crucial information about our health and traces of our ancestry, many have speculated whether it could help us unravel our individual and collective histories. Until recently, such studies relied on DNA samples from living individuals, while historians traditionally worked with primary sources from the past. Additionally, genetic methods have a troubled history, dating back to the pseudoscientific studies of race in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, the sequencing of the first Neanderthal genome in 2012 has transformed this field. Since then, ancient DNA research has challenged existing assumptions about human history and migrations. This article examines the potential of ancient DNA to enhance our understanding of Jewish history, using the history of Ashkenazi Jews as a case study based on two articles published in 2022. It also reviews the debates surrounding genetic studies related to Jewish history, arguing that ancient DNA holds promise for reevaluating various aspects of this history as well. As more studies using ancient DNA are published each year, renewed collaboration between scientists and humanities scholars is essential to achieve these new technologies’ full potential.
Journal Article
Prevalence of Germline IBRCA1/2/I Variants in Ashkenazi and Non-Ashkenazi Prostate Cancer Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Germline BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers are associated with prostate cancer risk. Ashkenazi Jewish people are at higher risk of breast cancer due to the high prevalence of specific founder germline BRCA1/2 variants. The distribution of these variants (BRCA1 vs. BRCA2) in Ashkenazi men with prostate cancer is not clear. This systematic review and meta-analysis indicates that germline BRCA1 variants are higher in the Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity in comparison to non-Ashkenazi men. Instead, BRCA2 variants present a similar distribution between the two considered groups. Background and aims: International guidelines recommend testing BRCA2 in men with prostate cancer, due to the presence of a strong association with this gene. Some ethnicities present disparities in genetic distribution for the relation with specific founder variants. Ashkenazi Jewish people are, importantly, at high risk of breast cancer for their inherited cluster with germline BRCA1/2 variants. However, in Ashkenazi men with prostate cancer, the prevalence of BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 is not well defined. We assessed the frequency of these variants in Ashkenazi vs. non-Ashkenazi men with prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: In accord with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, we revised all germline BRCA variants reported in MEDLINE from 1996 to 2021 in Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi men with prostate cancer. Results: Thirty-five original studies were selected for the analysis. Among populations from Israel and North America, Ashkenazi Jewish men presented higher prevalence of BRCA1 variants [0.9% (0.4–1.5) vs. 0.5% (0.2–1.1), p = 0.09] and a lower prevalence of BRCA2 variants [1.5% (1.1–2.0) vs. 3.5% (1.7–5.9), p = 0.08] in comparison to the non-Ashkenazi population. Conclusions: Since germline BRCA1 variants are more prevalent and BRCA2 variants are less prevalent in PCa patients of Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity in comparison to non-Ashkenazi patients, prostate cancer genetic screening in Ashkenazi men should not be restricted to the BRCA2 gene.
Journal Article
Tourist, Pilgrim, Migrant, Settler: Rethinking the Modern History of Ashkenazim in the Levant Through Sites of Hospitality
This article looks at Ashkenazi-operated hotels in Tiberias, Beirut, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambiguities that these stories reveal. Ashkenazi presence in Palestine is typically understood in terms of either the pious, zealot pilgrims, or the nationalist settlers. And yet the story of the hotel owners and operators could also fit into a different category, that of migrants, who sought to integrate within existing social, economic, and political structures. The tourism and hospitality industry, which relied on flows of people across borders and on a diverse customer-base, was to some degree at odds with the segregation associated with Zionist Yishuv. Such stories, which have been forgotten and erased by the history of Palestine in the twentieth century, prompt us to rethink our understanding of Ashkenazi history in the region.
Journal Article
Insights into the genetic epidemiology of Crohn's and rare diseases in the Ashkenazi Jewish population
As part of a broader collaborative network of exome sequencing studies, we developed a jointly called data set of 5,685 Ashkenazi Jewish exomes. We make publicly available a resource of site and allele frequencies, which should serve as a reference for medical genetics in the Ashkenazim (hosted in part at https://ibd.broadinstitute.org, also available in gnomAD at http://gnomad.broadinstitute.org). We estimate that 34% of protein-coding alleles present in the Ashkenazi Jewish population at frequencies greater than 0.2% are significantly more frequent (mean 15-fold) than their maximum frequency observed in other reference populations. Arising via a well-described founder effect approximately 30 generations ago, this catalog of enriched alleles can contribute to differences in genetic risk and overall prevalence of diseases between populations. As validation we document 148 AJ enriched protein-altering alleles that overlap with \"pathogenic\" ClinVar alleles (table available at https://github.com/macarthur-lab/clinvar/blob/master/output/clinvar.tsv), including those that account for 10-100 fold differences in prevalence between AJ and non-AJ populations of some rare diseases, especially recessive conditions, including Gaucher disease (GBA, p.Asn409Ser, 8-fold enrichment); Canavan disease (ASPA, p.Glu285Ala, 12-fold enrichment); and Tay-Sachs disease (HEXA, c.1421+1G>C, 27-fold enrichment; p.Tyr427IlefsTer5, 12-fold enrichment). We next sought to use this catalog, of well-established relevance to Mendelian disease, to explore Crohn's disease, a common disease with an estimated two to four-fold excess prevalence in AJ. We specifically attempt to evaluate whether strong acting rare alleles, particularly protein-truncating or otherwise large effect-size alleles, enriched by the same founder-effect, contribute excess genetic risk to Crohn's disease in AJ, and find that ten rare genetic risk factors in NOD2 and LRRK2 are enriched in AJ (p < 0.005), including several novel contributing alleles, show evidence of association to CD. Independently, we find that genomewide common variant risk defined by GWAS shows a strong difference between AJ and non-AJ European control population samples (0.97 s.d. higher, p<10-16). Taken together, the results suggest coordinated selection in AJ population for higher CD risk alleles in general. The results and approach illustrate the value of exome sequencing data in case-control studies along with reference data sets like ExAC (sites VCF available via FTP at ftp.broadinstitute.org/pub/ExAC_release/release0.3/) to pinpoint genetic variation that contributes to variable disease predisposition across populations.
Journal Article
Fine-scale genetic structure and rare variant frequencies
In response to the current challenge in genetic studies to make new associations, we advocate for a shift toward leveraging population fine-scale structure. Our exploration brings to light distinct fine-structure within populations having undergone a founder effect such as the Ashkenazi Jews and the population of the Quebec’ province. We leverage the fine-scale population structure to explore its impact on the frequency of rare variants. Notably, we observed an 8-fold increase in frequency for a variant associated with the Usher syndrome in one Quebec subpopulation. Our study underscores that smaller cohorts with greater genetic similarity demonstrate an important increase in rare variant frequencies, offering a promising avenue for new genetic variants’ discovery.
Journal Article
Ashkenazi Jewish and Other White IAPC/I I1307K Carriers Are at Higher Risk for Multiple Cancers
APCI1307K has a two-fold increased risk for colorectal cancer in Ashkenazi Jews (AJ) compared to non-Jewish populations. The study aims to demonstrate the prevalence of the APC I1307K variant in the largest cohort of AJ and non-AJ white (NAW) descents described so far. In addition, we assessed the prevalence of CRC and extracolonic malignancies among I1307K carriers. We found that NAW I1307K carriers had a higher risk of any cancer, such as CRC, melanoma, breast, and prostate cancer. Among AJ, the variant increased the risk for CRC and renal cancer, and AJ men had a higher risk for any cancer and melanoma. We believe these findings are significant and may suggest the necessity for cancer screening in this population. Purpose: APC I1307K has a higher prevalence among Ashkenazi Jews (AJ), and a two-fold increased risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) compared to non-Jewish populations. We assessed CRC and extracolonic malignancies among I1307K carriers from AJ and non-AJ whites (NAW). Methods: We compared the rate of I1307K in cancer patients who underwent germline genetic testing via a multi-gene panel with healthy subjects retrieved from the gnomAD database. Cases undergoing testing were not selected and testing was undertaken through a commercial laboratory. Results: Overall, 586/7624 (7.6%) AJ with cancer carried I1307K compared to 342/4918 (6.9%) in the AJ control group (p = NS). In the NAW, 318/141,673 (0.2%) cancer patients and 73/58,918 (0.1%) controls carried the variant [OR = 1.8, (95% CI 1.41–2.35), p < 0.001]. I1307K in NAW was associated with an increased risk of CRC [OR = 1.95, (95% CI 1.39–2.73), p < 0.01], melanoma [OR = 2.54, (95% CI 1.57–3.98)], breast [females, OR = 1.73, (95% CI 1.18–2.65), p < 0.01], and prostate cancer [males, OR = 2.42, (95% CI 1.45–3.94), p < 0.01]. Among AJ, the variant increased the risk for CRC [OR = 1.67, (95% CI 1.36–2.05), p < 0.001] and renal cancer [OR = 1.64, (95% CI 1.04–2.47)]. AJ men had a higher risk for any cancer [OR = 1.32, (95% CI 1.05–1.66), p < 0.05] and melanoma [OR = 2.04, (95% CI 1.24–3.22); p < 0.05]. Conclusions: This is the most extensive study to date conducted on I1307K carriers, although it is amenable to selection bias. NAW carrying I1307K had a higher risk of any cancer and several specific cancer types, whereas AJ carrying the variant had a risk for only a few select cancers. Our data add to the research base on I1307 carriers concerning future risk management.
Journal Article