THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
70 Friday, February 3, 1984
New Israeli Treatment System Aids Pregnant Diabetics
By JUDIE ORON
Israel Govt. Press Service
JERUSALEM — Until
recently, diabetic women
who became pregnant faced
serious complications which
put them and their babies at
high risk. A new therapeu-
tic regimen for pregnant
diabetics at Bikur Holim
Hospital in Jerusalem is
providing a solution for this
problem and teaching
women to actively partici-
pate in their own care.
The women are hos-
pitalized at the beginning of
their second trimester for a
24-hour period, during
which their blood sugar
level is monitored con-
tinuously with a new corn-
puterized instrument called
a biostator.
The biostator supplies the
medical team and the
patient with information
about the amounts and
schedules required for her
insulin injections. When
she leaves the hospital, she
is equipped with a battery-
operated, micro-
computerized miniature
pump, pre-programmed to
deliver the necessary
amounts of insulin based on
the biostator profile. If there
are any sudden changes in
the patient's blood sugar
level, the woman can con-
tact her physician by tele-
phone and have her regi-
men changed, or be briefly
re-hospitalized to obtain a
new, up-dated profile.
The program is the first
of its kind in Israel. Prof.
Yoram Diamant, head of
Bikur Holim's Gynecol-
ogy Department, ex-
plained the medical prob-
lems involved: "Diabetic
women can normally be
treated with one or more
daily injections of insu-
lin. During pregnancy,
however, the tremendous
hormonal changes asso-
ciated with gestation can
cause dramatic upheav-
als in their sugar balance,
even within a period of an
hour or two."
If the patient does not
adapt her insulin therapy to
the new situation, the result
can be harmful to the
mother, who can develop
high blood pressure and to-
xemia, and even more disas-
trous for the fetus.
Children born of mothers
whose sugar levels were not
properly stabilized are usu-
ally abnormally large at
birth, causing serious prob-
lems at delivery. The new-
born babies can suffer se-
vere respiratory problems
and can have developmen-
tal difficulties which may
carry over into school age.
How were such patients
treated before the new
treatment was developed?
"Until recently," Prof.
Diamant says, "the stub-
born cases had to be hos-
pitalized for almost the full
term of their pregnancy.
, This resulted in severe emo-
tional and physical stress
for the patients and their
families, not to mention
enormous hospitalization
costs."
The new therapeutic
unit has been operating
for the last six months.
The team consists of
gynecologists, internists
and dieticians, who can
be in 24-hour telephone
contact with the patient.
Dr. Yaffe, one of the
gynecologists on the
team, is very encouraged
by the preliminary re-
sults. "We have treated
four women in the unit to
date and, except for one
miscarriage (which was
not related to the
patient's diabetes), we
have delivered three
healthy babies."
Prof. Diamant would like
to develop the unit into a
computerized center, staf-
fed; around the clock by med-
ical personnel who can pro-
vide advice and, if needed, a
change in programming for
the patients on a "remote
control" basis. When asked
about this "remote control
medicine," Dr. Yaffe ex-
plained: "Our patients are
easily trained to recognize
new and potentially
dangerous symptoms. We,
in turn, have learned to
seek the patients' advice be-
fore deciding on changes in
their treatment. The more
independent they can be-
come in assessing their own
needs, the easier it is for us
to help them."
The number of diabetic
women who will require
this type of care is relatively
Importance of Defining 'Holocaust'
By REV. FRANKLIN
LITTE LL
National Institute
on the Holocaust
PHILADELPHIA — At
least half the letters which
flood the office of the Na-
tional Institute on the
Holocaust/ Anne Frank
House display an appalling
ignorance of the basic in-
formation of the Holocaust.
Since almost all of them,
with the exception of a
small percentage of "poison
pen" and threatening let-
ters, come from persons who
are moved to learn more, we
must assume that the public
at large is even more ignor- •
ant.
A typical recent letter
asks, "What are you doing
about other holocausts suf-
fered by other nations?"
(italics mine). Several ask
about the "holocaust" of the
Jews and millions of others
killed by the Nazis. Some of
them reflect absorption of
Simon Wiesenthal's concept
of 11,000,000 "victims of the
Holocaust" — 6,000,000
Jews and 5,000,000 gen-
tiles.
All of this is profoundly
misleading, and it prevents
a real comprehension of the
Holocaust and what its les-
sons are for Jews and other
peoples.
The kind of thinking
involved is this: instead
of speaking of the Exodus
and what it has come to
mean for Jews and other
peoples, we are to spend
our time comparing the
wanderings of the He-
brews with the wander-
ings of the Goths and Vis-
igoths — not to forget the
Huns from the Siberian
steppes and the
aborigines who are said
long ago to have crossed
the frozen Bering Straits
from Asia to North
America.
The Russians will talk
only of the 22 million Rus-
sians who lost their lives
during "the Great Patriotic
War" against Nazi Ger-
many. And the Polish offi-
cials in Warsaw: they would
talk only of the six million
Poles who died at the hands
of the Germans.
Thus what the Jews who
perished in the Holocaust
were unable to attain in
their lifetime they have now
acquired in death: they are
counted as Russian and
Polish "population losses."
The Marxists cannot cope
with the Holocaust for the
same reason as liberal Pro-
testants, modern humanists
and other intellectual pro-
geny of the Enlightenment.
They can talk about "hu-
manity," but appreciation of
the particular escapes
them. They can talk about
"universal laws," but
unique events are beyond
their ken.
THE HOLOCAUST re-
fers, speaking correctly, to
the planned murder of six
million Jews in Hitler's
area of conquest (most of
them in eastern Europe).
A diabetic woman is fitted with a small insulin
pump during early stages of her pregnancy.
small. Therefore, the center
can realistically expect to
provide the most up-to-date
treatment for this problem
for the whole Jerusalem
area. The cost of developing
and running such a unit is
Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser, 76
NEW YORK — Rabbi
Ben Zion Bokser, chairman
of the Committee on Jewish
Law and Standards of the
Rabbinical Assembly (Con-
servative), died Jan. 30 at
age 76.
Rabbi Bokser was adjunct
professor of political science
and religious studies at
Queens College in New
York and was director and
co-founder of the Center for
the Study of Ethics and Pub-
ence, and persons of con-
science are concerned about
it.
Yet "omnicide" is not in-
tended, nor is it planned, by
any individuals in power —
not the dictators in the
Kremlin, not the adminis-
trators in Washington.
Omnicide is not an exten-
sion of genocide, and even
Herman Levine, a retired
less an expansion of the self-employed food broker,
Holocaust. Omnicide is, if it died Jan. 26 at age 87.
occurs, an extension of the
Born in Russia, Mr.
logic of modern war and Levine was a member of
Temple Israel, the Jewish
militarism.
In June 1985, there will War Veterans, Bnai Brith
be held in a suburb of and Jewish Community
Hiroshima, Japan, at the Center. He was honored by
40th anniversary of the the Allied Jewish Cam-
atomic bomb, a Second In-
ternational Symposium on Henry Gross
the Holocaust and
Henry Gross, a former
Genocide. (The first was
held in Tel Aviv in June owner of the Gross Pointe
1982.) The distinctions here Inn in Flint, died Jan. 30 at
made are important if such age 95.
Born in Hungary, Mr.
a conference is not to slide
Gross
was a resident of
into generalizations neither
Miami Beach, Fla., at the
helpful nor true.
time of his death. A former
The use of the atom bomb Detroiter, Mr. Gross retired
(then of primitive type) on 20 years agb.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
He was a member of the
was riot "Holocaust." Flint Lodge of the Masons,
Neither was it "genocide." Bnai Brith and Temple
Whether it presaged "om- Menora in Miami Beach.
nicide" remains to be seen.
He leaves his wife, Helen;
OMNICIDE is a term It was an extension of the two sons, George Duchin of
which enjoys some circula- logic of modern war, in Southfield and Edward
tion, and it refers to nuclear which the safest place to be Duchin of San Antonio,
Tex.; two daughters, Mrs.
warfare — with the total de- is in military service.
Like the Exodus, rightly Donald (Violet) Short of
struction of life on the
planet. This "realized es- understood it helps all Flint and Mrs. Sidney (Be-
tty) Berg of Southfield; 14
chatology" — Apocalypse people of conscience to a
grandsons and 11 great-
Now! — has become a real new and more vivid appre-
possibility, a real accom- cation of the worth of grandchildren. Interment
Detroit.
human life.
plishment of modern sci-
GENOCIDE, now a de-
fined crime, refers only to
the planned destruction of
targetted groups of people.
(The Holocaust is a
uniquely powerful illustra-
tion of genocide, if genocide
is the agenda.) A crime
presupposes criminals; that
is, it is not an earthquake or
a flood or other natural dis-
aster. Someone planned and
executed the crime, and if
such person can be brought
to trial he can be punished.
MASS MURDER, of
which history (including
the 20th Century) has a sur-
feit, includes phenomena
beyond the perameters of
Holocaust and Genocide.
(Both the Holocaust and
other genocides are, of
course, included in any dis-
cussion of mass murder.)
It is now charged that
modern war, which is di-
rected primarily against
civilian populations rather
than against soldiers in uni-
form, is an incidence of mass
murder. Yet the purpose of
modern war, even the most
ruthless execution of it, is
not to destroy enemy
peoples: the purpose is to
compel their submission.
high, but is immediately
justified in terms of the low-
ered hospitalization costs
and the incalculable drain
on society of supporting and
treating children with birth
defects.
lic Policy at the college.
He also was a former pro-
fessor of homiletics at the
Jewish Theological Semi-
nary of America and former
visiting professor of Jewish
mysticism at the Hebrew
University.
His books include:
"Judaism and the Christian
Predicament," "Judaism:
Profile of a Faith" and
"Jews, Judaism and the
State of Israel."
Food Broker Herman Levine
"Serving the Jewish community with traditional dignity and understanding"
HERMAN LEVINE
paign "for his efforts in fund
raising."
Mr. Levine was the
former chairman of the
Center Businessmen's Club
Campaign Committee and
for many years worked as a
volunteer for Sinai Hospi-
tal, Meals-on-Wheels and
the Michigan Cancer
Society.
He leaves a son, Dr. Les-
lie; a daughter, Mitzi
Cornfield; two sisters, Mrs.
Reva Goodman and Mrs.
Lilly Goldberg, both of Bal-
timore, Md.; five grandchil-
dren and three great-grand-
children.
543.1622
HEBREW MEMORIAL CHAPEL
26640 GREENFIELD ROAD
OAK PARK, MICHIGAN 48237
SERVING ALL CEMETERIES
Alan H. Dorfman
Funeral Director & Mgr.