Need for genetic testing raised by new initiative GeneTestNow

By Rebecca Steinberger
Published on March 13, 2013

Significant advances in science enable us to no longer question what’s in our genes. This is especially important for Jews, who are far more likely to be carriers of genetic diseases than the general population.

Carmen Warschaw, Democratic activist, philanthropist, 95

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 7, 2012

Carmen H. Warschaw, passionate political activist, strategist, financial backer and “Jewish mother” to generations of Democratic office holders, died — fittingly — on Election Day, Nov. 6, after watching the television prognostications on the presidential race. She was 95.

Giving as a fountain of youth

By Rachel Heller
Published on May 23, 2012

Al Azus has found his fountain of youth, and he’s not keeping it a secret. In fact, the 92-year-old philanthropist recently published a memoir whose title all but gives his formula away: “Live Longer by Giving.”

Kids helping kids

Published on December 15, 2010

Ryan Gurman and Brandon Newberg, both 13, have never met. They live in different parts of Los Angeles, go to different schools, attend different synagogues and celebrated their bar mitzvahs almost a year apart. Yet over the past few months, the young men have shared a common purpose: helping sick and injured children at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

LAPD investigating alleged embezzlement at cardiac nonprofit

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on September 3, 2007

Los Angeles police last week began looking into the possible embezzlement of more than $700,000 from the Save A Heart Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that offers paid fellowships to Israeli cardiologists who want to study under specialists at the Westside hospital.

Cervical cancer vaccine stirs hope and debate

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on February 15, 2007

According to the Centers for Disease Control, at least 50 percent of sexually active people contract a genital HPV infection. About 6.2 million new cases are diagnosed each year, the agency reports, and by age 50 at least 80 percent of women will be infected.

Passing the Torch

Published on December 14, 2006

community news briefs

Healing Torah Makes Hospital Rounds

By Amy Klein
Published on June 22, 2006

One day last year Rabbi Levi Meier, the Jewish chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was summoned to the room of an elderly Russian man in the ICU who had cancer.

He was in poor spirits, so Meier decided to bring in the Torah from the chaplaincy ark. The patient's eyes lit up at the sight of the Torah that Meier, and volunteer Sandy Gordon, brought into a room.

Community Briefs

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on December 8, 2005

A lively, heartfelt tribute to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin brought more than 400 people to the University of Judaism to mark the 10th year since an assassin took his life.
When California voters passed a $3 billion stem cell research initiative, they not only opened the door to medical advances but also to a collaboration with scientists from Israel, which is an established leader in the field.

To seed that partnership, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center recently hosted a two-day symposium that attracted more than 300 physicians, scientists, bioethicists and entrepreneurs.

Briefs

Published on October 21, 2004

Briefs

Jewish Groups Stay Silent on Union Vote

By Mike Levy
Published on December 12, 2002

A showdown between Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and hundreds of its registered nurses over unionizaton will come to head after three days of balloting ending Friday, Dec. 13.

The hospital has strongly opposed the registered nurses push to be represented by the California Nurses Association (CNA) which represents 45,000 nurses at 150 hospitals in the state. According to observers, upwards of half of the 1,500 registered nurses eligible to take part in the vote may side with the hospital. Both sides have assailed each other in the days leading up to the vote.

The nurses have accused the medical center of illegal activities, while the hospital has said the nurses' actions have disrupted patient care.

Did You Know…?

By Michael Aushenker
Published on October 3, 2002

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center spans over 24 acres and encompasses 1.5 million square feet.

Cedars-Sinai: Best in the West

By Mike Levy
Published on June 27, 2002

TheAmerican Jewish community supports the best medical centers in the country, from sea to shining sea, according to a new study published in the May/June issue of Modern Maturity magazine.

Bentley’s Drive

By Michael Aushenker
Published on June 13, 2002

You might call her the first lady of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Barbara Factor Bentley, a Cedars-Sinai board member for more than 15 years, was the first woman to sit on the board of directors' executive committee.

Physician, Heal The Soul

By Mike Levy
Published on April 18, 2002

Physicians played a significant role in the Holocaust, and today's doctors can learn from the ethical failures of that period, according to an article recently published by Dr. Joel Geiderman, co-chair of the emergency department (ED) of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

In "Physician Complicity in the Holocaust: Historical Review and Reflections on Emergency Medicine in the 21st Century," Geiderman sets out a series of moral failures he attributes to German physicians before, during and after WWII. Published in the March issue of Academic Emergency Medicine journal, the two-part article enumerates ethical challenges requiring greater vigilance from today's physicians.

A Committed Life

By Judy R. Gruen
Published on October 22, 1998

For as long as she can remember, Dr. Beth Karlan has been driven to answer one elusive question: what is the difference between a normal cell and a cancerous cell? While the question is common among medical researchers, Karlan's progress in discovering at least a partial answer has been both heartening and a continuing stimulus to continue the search.

Cedars-Sinai Merges with Two Westside Hospitals

By Rob Eshman
Published on October 2, 1997

When Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced last Monday that itplans to take over management of two smaller West Los Angeleshospitals, the headlines could easily have read, "Man Bites Dog."