Seekers of Meaning 4/12/2024: Rabbi Peter Kasdan and Dr. Liz Etkin-Kramer from Yodeah.org, providing genetic cancer counseling for Jewish families

Jewish Sacred Aging Podcasts

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Peter Kasdan and Dr. Liz Etkin-Kramer discuss Yodeah.org, their online portal for genetic screening and counseling of Jewish families for the BRCA gene and other genetic markers for cancer risk.

Ashkenazi Jewish men and women are disproportionately more likely to carry hereditary genetic mutations that can markedly increase their lifetime risk of cancer. Most people are not aware, and most will not have a family history. Yodeah’s mission is to educate the Jewish community about hereditary cancer genetic mutations and provide access to affordable, clinical grade testing. Yodeah’s goal is to save lives. Knowledge is power. Knowledge saves lives.

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About the Guest

Liz Etkin-Kramer, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

Dr Liz Etkin-Kramer is a board certified gynecologist in South Florida.

In addition to her private practice, she is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at FIU Herbert Wertheim School of medicine and she holds leadership positions in Florida’s district XII of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She founded Yodeah.org, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the Jewish community on their increased risk of carrying hereditary cancer genetic mutations and facilitating cost effective genetic testing.

With the late Lauren Corduck, founder of One in Forty, she co-founded the Prevent Hereditary cancer coalition. In 2020 she was appointed to the American College of Obstetrics of gynecology presidential task force on knowledge gaps in breast and ovarian cancer risk assessment, management and genetic testing, and created educational videos for practicing OB/GYNs.

She is passionate about breast and ovarian cancer risk assessment, early detection and prevention.

RABBI PETER E. KASDAN

Rabbi Peter E. Kasdan was named Rabbi Emeritus when he retired in July 2001, after serving as Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of West Essex, Livingston, New Jersey, for thirty years. Known, most widely, for his social justice work, he helped create and was the first president of both the Livingston Interfaith Clergy Association and the Livingston Interfaith Council, as well as the Founding President of NJRC AR (the New Jersey Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights). Taking the title “Rabbi-teacher” seriously, he relished the time he spent working with the B’nai Mitzvah students, as well as with his students in the Confirmation/Post-Confirmation Program. He also taught more than a dozen Adult B’nai Mitzvah classes, helping 187 Adults study in a two-year cycle and enabling them to reach that unique moment in their Jewish lives that, as children, for whatever the reason, they never had the chance to attain.

Since his retirement, Rabbi Kasdan has remained quite active in a variety of endeavors in which he remains passionate: in the search for social justice, continuing his life-long efforts on behalf of the migrant worker community, specifically his support of, and personal friendship with the late Cesar Chavez and the multi-generations of the Chavez-Rodriguez family; in the growth and achievement of our children through his support of NFTY, JFTY’s Urban Mitzvah Corps and the URJ’s Kutz Camp; in his bond with K’lal Yisraeyl, supportive of the welfare of the People and State of Israel, especially through the survival of the Ethiopian Jewish community now living in Israel. He served on the Commission of Social Action of Reform Judaism, on the board of ARZA / World Union, North American Board, as President (and now President Emeritus) of the Scholarship Fund for Ethiopian Jews, and as the Rabbinic Advisor of the Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium, the Canavan Foundation as chair of The Central Conference of American Rabbi’s Taskforce on Jewish Genetic Disease. He was the recipient of the UAHC’s Fund for Reform Judaism Distinguished Service Award, a NFTY Life Membership awarded in 1984 and, in 2007, he was awarded the Central Conference of American Rabbi’s Rabbi Samuel Cook Award for Lifetime Service to Youth Work and, as he retired, Temple Emanu-El awarded him the Temple Emanu-El 2001 Shofar Award for his life-long work in the area of Social Justice and Tikkun Olam.

Rabbi Kasdan and his wife Sheila have lived in Longboat Key, Florida since 2002. There he continues his life-long service to both the Jewish and general community. He is Past-Chair of the Longboat Key Policeman’s Pension Board and currently serves as Secretary of the Longboat Key Consolidated Pension Board and, because of Florida State requirements, is now a Certified Public Pension Trustee. He served as President of his condo association and currently serves on the Bioethics Committee of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital. He also serves as Chair of the Speakers Committee at his and Sheila’s local congregation, Temple Beth Israel of Longboat Key.

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