By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28, Rochelle Shoretz struggled to meet other young Jewish women with cancer. Two years prior to her diagnosis, Shoretz, an attorney and mother of two, had served as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, becoming the first Orthodox Jewish woman to clerk for a Supreme Court Justice.
Inspired by a conversation with another newly diagnosed woman, Shoretz founded Sharsheret during chemotherapy treatments in December 2000. Sharsheret is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to addressing the unique challenges facing young Jewish women living with breast cancer.
According to American Cancer Society estimates, in 2001 more than 10,000 new breast-cancer cases — representing 8.3 percent of total cases — were found in American women under the age of 40, and about 1,000 of those — or 0.7 percent of total cases — were in women under 30.
“The response was unbelievable,” said Shoretz. “I think there was a void in the Jewish community that this fills.” To date, Sharsheret has received more than 11,000 phone calls from 15 states, including Washington. “People are just spreading the word,” she said.
The name sharsheret, Hebrew for “chain,” was selected to symbolize the bond between women, united in experience and strengthened by one another as links in a chain. The essence of Sharsheret lies in the dialogue between women connected by common experience. By pairing those who share similar experiences as well as diagnoses, Sharsheret aims to provide support and resources for young Jewish women fighting breast cancer.
For young Jewish women with cancer, concerns may include family, community, dating, fertility, marriage, child rearing and religious life. Women who have lost their hair to chemotherapy feel self-conscious exposing their bare heads at the ritual bath each month; others are embarrassed over having their breasts seen by mikvah staffers after undergoing partial or complete mastectomies.
For Jewish women of Ashkenazi descent, the heightened risk of developing breast cancer can be alarming. Many women who have breast cancer at a young age are carriers of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. That gene has been linked to the disease in Ashkenazi Jews at higher frequency than among the general population.
For the community at large, Sharsheret provides health information packets (addressing breast health and genetic risks to Jewish women) and medical conferences. The group also coordinates symposia in response to concerns of the women who phone the organization for support. The symposia are free of charge and open to men and women of all religious backgrounds.
Next month, Sharsheret’s symposium, “How Do We Care For Our Children? Issues for Women and Men Facing Breast Cancer” will educate patients and healthcare professionals about the effects of breast cancer treatments on children; identify the needs of children of all ages coping with a parent’s diagnosis, treatment and post-treatment recovery and explore the obstacles to open communication with children. The symposium will take place on May 19 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Hoffman Auditorium in New York. A transcript of the event will be available on Sharsheret’s website (www.sharsheret.org).
Sharsheret also reaches out to Jewish communities outside of New York. Shoretz plans to visit Chicago in June to discuss the effect of breast cancer on the Jewish community. “I would love to bring Sharsheret’s message to Seattle,” she said.
Sharsheret is not alone in its quest to support young women with breast cancer. “[It] is just one component of a larger support network,” said Shoretz. Other sources include the Young Survival Coalition, for women under 40 www.youngsurvivors.org and SHARE, for all women with breast cancer www.sharecancersupport.org.
For more information about Sharsheret, call toll-free at 866-474-2774, e-mail [email protected], write to Sharsheret, P.O. Box 3245, Teaneck, NJ 07666, or visitthem on the Web at www.sharsheret.org.