It’s hard to imagine the incredible impact of Dor Yeshorim’s role in eliminating recessive genetic disorders from the Jewish community. Read about their newest panel, here.
Here’s a brief recap about Dor Yeshorim, for anyone who may not be familiar. Dor Yeshorim was created to eliminate fatal and debilitating recessive genetic disease from the Jewish community. They travel to schools and yeshivas (or individuals can go to a testing site) and take a small blood sample, which is labeled by a number only, ensuring strict confidentiality. The blood sample is tested for common, incurable recessive diseases which present serious health issues or risk of fatality. When a shidduch comes up, couples exchange Dor Yeshorim numbers and call for a compatibility check, ensuring that they are genetically compatible.
Most likely, you knew all of this already. Here’s what you may not know: Dor Yeshorim has developed a brand-new Hearing Loss Panel to test for genetic hearing loss.
Genetic hearing loss is prevalent in newborns of all Ashkenazi and Sephadi backgrounds, even in families with no prior history. Dor Yeshorim has seen a steady increase of families suffering from unexplained hearing loss. It quickly became clear that there was a vital need for immediate and extensive research.
So what did they do? Using cutting edge genetic technology, they successfully identified more than 60 genetic mutations causing genetic hearing loss. They found that 1 in 6 are carriers for mutations that can cause hearing loss, even with no prior family history. This revolutionary research will Bez”H prevent most cases of recessive, genetically inherited hearing loss.
So what now?
All future testing will include the opportunity to add the hearing loss panel. If you’ve already been screened though, you can visit their website here or contact their office at 718-384-6060, option 2 to have the hearing loss panel added to your profile. Rabbanim across the spectrum are highly recommending that everyone be screened, so if this is relevant for you or your son or daughter, reach out to Dor Yeshorim now to avoid delays during a shidduch.
Mr Friedman says
It is actually not approved by most rabbanim.
This seems to be an ad direct from Dor Yeshorim.
I’m shocked that “ads” are allowed like this without first checking facts
R says
Originally when Dor Yeshorim began it was for deadly and tragic diseases like Tay-Sachs. Is hearing loss the same?? Something about this is concerning.
Anonymous says
As someone who suffered unexplained bilateral hearing loss at the age of 20, going completely deaf by the age of 23, I would like to say, that until you intimately know the experience of not hearing your own child crying, your husband talking, a car beeping, music playing and fire alarms blaring, you will not be so quick to discredit an organization who is trying to avoid this very scenario happen to anyone else. Hearing loss and deafness is a true disability, and can leave a burden on the individual and entire family. If I would have been given the option to avoid it, it would be an understatement to say that I would be jumping bridges to grab that option as fast as I could.
EB says
In the case of genetic testing and checking compatibility during the shidduch stage, this would mean you would never exist and not something that you would have been able to “avoid”…
I was also under the impression that dor yesharim tested for diseases that would cause early death of a child…
Malky says
That’s a pretty insensitive comment-wow
eb says
my intention was not to be insensitive to one’s disability.
i have a son with hearing loss (not from a genetic source) and i understand some of the hardships involved with said disability from a mother’s view. my point was only that dor yesharim is an organization that does genetic testing (or at least was when i was in shidduchim) that tests for genetic disorders which would cause deadly outcomes if the couple were to continue with their marriage and bringing children into the world, thus trying to spare said couple from very painful futures.
Again, i would never say living with ANY disability is a walk in the park compared to that, because i BH can’t judge that, but from my understanding of what Dor Yesharim’s point was, it was to avoid that trauma in couples at an early enough stage of their dating career.
As an aside, there are plenty of ways to check for MANY genetic disorders, including hearing loss etc that would not cause premature death of the child even outside Dor Yesharim.
Again, my apologies if my comment was insensitive.
T says
Wow. As a mother of a child with hearing loss this makes me very uncomfortable. You mean my husband and I would have been told we are incompatible? I can’t even imagine.
Malky says
People could have made the same comment when they were testing for tay sachs.
Anonymous says
This doesn’t sit well with me . While I can understand wanted to test for fatal diseases. We have to put a stop somewhere. There are many things we carry genes for that will never effect us or our children and testing for it can only stop shidduchim from happening… Isn’t it already hard enough for some to find a shidduch. Why throw more curve balls. Haven’t we trusted Hashem in the past. Why do we now take genetics into our own hands as if we can and should manipulate it.
Shoshana Bernstein says
Thank you for your interest in Dor Yeshorim’s new Hearing Loss Panel.
The Hearing Loss Panel was developed as per Rabbinical and medical guidance to answer an urgent need in the Jewish community.
We welcome your questions. For more information please visit the Q & A on our website https://doryeshorim.org/understanding-dor-yeshorims-hearing-loss-panel/ or contact our office at 718-384-6060
Dinah says
I can’t imagine Dor Yeshorim would make such a move without Rabbinical guidance… there is obviously a need for this so the Rabbanim told them to work on it. Hashem makes shidduchim, let’s not forget that…
Cs says
On the dor yeshorim conversation
I would like to add (and since you can’t hear me, please note I’m speaking with strength and passion) There are a lot of crazier and stupid reasons why ppl say no to a shidduch ie, my extended family is not your type, or not exactly that perfect profile. So preventing hearing loss is actually a very legitimate reason to say no to a shidduch. Come on, let’s be real, and stop saying no to shidduchim for baseless reasons before discussing this new “hearing loss no”. All of a sudden you’re nervous about all the ppl who won’t get married because of this new panel. I’m concerned about all the baseless and hurtful “no”s.
Add just to add, clearly since dor yeshorim obviously doesn’t have a personal agenda, this issue must be widespread and far reaching.