Former NASA Scientist Revolutionizes Breast Cancer Detection & Other Orthodox Jews in the News

Orthodox Scientist Develops “MonitHer” To Detect Breast Cancer at Home
A handheld ultrasound is being developed so that women can monitor their own breasts at home, allowing for a speedier detection of breast cancer. The brains behind the product, Orthodox Jew Yehudit Abrams, is a former biomedical scientist at NASA, but has changed gears in her career to focus on the software of this product, which could revolutionize the detection of breast cancer at a much earlier point than has been possible previously. She is now focusing on her newly formed company ‘MonitHer’ to develop the product.

Jesse Orenshein Shines as Jewish ‘American Ninja Warrior’
A recent college grad from Culver City takes on a daunting obstacle course in the L.A. City Finals of the NBC competition series “American Ninja Warrior,” airing Monday July 16, and his Modern Orthodox family couldn’t be more thrilled. Sporting identical tee shirts reading MAZAL TOUGH, Jesse Orenshein’s parents and brother cheer him on as he tackles the torturous obstacles against the clock.

Need Tefillin? There’s an App for That
You can call a taxi, order a hamburger, rent a film and buy a book with a few clicks of a smartphone. So why shouldn’t it be as easy to score a set of tefillin? That, at least, was the question that led to the launch last month of Wrapp — an app its creator calls “the Uber of the tefillin world.”

Launching in English, Chapter-a-Day Project Looks to Bring Bible Back to Masses
In the beginning — November 2014 — Benny Lau, a Modern Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem, taught the first chapter of Genesis. More than three years and 929 chapters later, he’s starting it all again on Sunday. But this time in English as well. “I want to give the Bible back to the people.”

The ‘Hotel Transylvania’ Franchise May Be Our Greatest Epic Poem of Contemporary American Jewish Life
One of contemporary film’s most beloved animated families just doesn’t seem to fit in. They come from small towns in Europe. They have distinct traditions. They wear black, and certain foods make their stomachs upset. They speak in heavy accents. They are vampires, but, voiced by Mel Brooks and Adam Sandler, it’s not too absurd to wonder whether Hotel Transylvania is a grand metaphor for contemporary Jewish life. (The adorable offspring, by the way, is voiced by Asher Blinkoff, a young and talented Orthodox actor.) It is, and it’s wonderful.

Study Finds Widespread History of Sexual Abuse Among Formerly Orthodox
While Jews are no more likely to be sexually abused than other Americans, individuals who have left the Orthodox community are more than four times as likely to have been molested as children than the general population, a new study has found. The study, by two Orthodox Jewish researchers, surveyed more than 300 participants over a three-year period. Its authors — Dr. David Rosmarin of Harvard and Dr. David Pelcovitz of Yeshiva University — said their report was an attempt to address a lack of research on the prevalence of sexual abuse in the Jewish community.

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