{"id":26480,"date":"2025-09-20T00:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T00:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/26480\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T00:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T00:05:11","slug":"jscreen-advances-genetic-disease-prevention-during-tay-sachs-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/26480\/","title":{"rendered":"Jscreen advances genetic disease prevention during Tay-Sachs Awareness Month\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shari Ungerleider from New Jersey and Myra Sack from Boston share a heartbreaking bond: each lost a child to Tay-Sachs disease. Shari\u2019s beloved son, Evan, passed away more than 25 years ago, while Myra\u2019s daughter, Havi, died in 2021. Even after decades of progress in medicine, babies are still being born with Tay-Sachs and other devastating genetic diseases.\n<\/p>\n

The challenge is to prevent such suffering; the solution is simple:\u00a0comprehensive genetic screening and personalized counseling for prospective parents.\n <\/p>\n

Shari and Myra are now advocates for genetic testing, supporting the work of\u00a0jscreen\u00ae, a national nonprofit initiative dedicated to preventing genetic diseases through education and preconception genetic testing.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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This September, for Tay-Sachs Awareness Month and the Jewish New Year, jscreen is raising awareness so every family can plan for a\u00a0happy new year and a healthy future.<\/p>\n

Shari, who serves as\u00a0Outreach and Education director at jscreen.org, said, \u201cNot a day goes by that I don\u2019t think of Evan and miss him. I wanted to honor his memory by turning our tragedy into something positive. Raising awareness about genetic testing helps spare other families the suffering we experienced. Reproductive carrier screening, paired with genetic counseling, identifies couples who are at risk and provides them with options to ensure a healthy future for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myra wrote\u00a0\u201cFifty-seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter, Finding Our Way,\u201d a memoir about Havi\u2019s short but meaningful life and her parents\u2019 struggle to help her live and die with dignity.<\/p>\n

Since Havi\u2019s passing, Myra and her husband,\u00a0Dr. Matt Goldstein, have found purpose in their grief. Matt has become the CEO of\u00a0jscreen. Myra is now certified in Compassionate Bereavement Care, serves on the board of the Courageous Parents Network, and founded\u00a0e-motion, Inc., a nonprofit supporting families living with loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing Havi changed everything for our family,\u201d said Myra. \u201cWe\u2019re devoted to serving the world with grace, compassion, and courage \u2014 the essence of Havi. Jscreen is a community with compassionate leadership, cutting-edge science, and the power to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jscreen makes genetic testing\u00a0simple, accessible, and affordable\u00a0through at-home saliva test kits, including a Reproductive Carrier Screen that tests for more than 260 diseases; if results reveal that a couple is at increased risk, jscreen provides telehealth genetic counseling, and Hereditary Cancer Test, a separate test for genetic mutations linked to risk for breast, ovarian, colorectal, and other cancers, enabling prevention or early treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA simple at-home saliva test can spare families heartbreak,\u201d said\u00a0Karen Arnovitz Grinzaid, founding executive director of jscreen.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re here every step of the way to provide education, genetic counseling, and support so families can make informed decisions about their future.\u201d \u2014 jscreen<\/p>\n

For more information, visit jscreen.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shari Ungerleider from New Jersey and Myra Sack from Boston share a heartbreaking bond: each lost a child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[377,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-26480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}