Health news update: Is type 2 diabetes a Jewish disease?

When Neil Cohen started experiencing blurred vision and dizziness just after Pesach 2006, he popped into Specsavers at Brent Cross to get tested. For Steven Marcus, it was an unquenchable thirst that took him to the GP’s surgery.

Both men were quickly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, meaning their bodies were no longer able to regulate blood sugar. Untreated, the condition can cause serious complications including heart disease, kidney disease and stroke. It can damage eyesight and lead to amputation. For Steven the news came as “a complete shock”; for Neil whose older brother already had diabetes, less so, even though he was aged just 45 at the time.

Charity Diabetes UK has declared “a hidden health crisis” because 4.2 million of us and rising now have type 2 diabetes, while millions more are thought to have undiagnosed pre-diabetes, or raised blood sugar.

In a healthy person, the hormone insulin produced by the pancreas keeps blood sugar at a steady level. Unlike type 1 diabetes, which can strike without any obvious reason, type 2 is seen as a lifestyle disease. It is caused when the body cannot produce enough insulin. Though it mainly affects older people, increasing numbers of under-25s have the condition.

The main causes include obesity, especially a large waist measurement indicating that fat is stored around the liver and pancreas. Lack of activity and eating too many sugary foods and unrefined carbohydrates are also important factors.

Steven, 67, frankly admits to having been over-fond of cakes and buns. “Looking back, I think my diet was dreadful. I used to eat a lot of sweets, chocolate, beer, everything you can think of.” Neil, 63, who stopped playing football when he married and started a family, had no idea that there was anything wrong with his diet, “I used to have three spoons of sugar in a cup of coffee, and two or three cups a day. I liked biscuits. I still like biscuits. But I didn’t think it was that bad.”

The term Judenkrankheit or “Jewish disease” became prevalent in German medical literature in the 19th-century

Given it’s so common, is there anything particularly Jewish about diabetes? The 19th-century German scientific establishment certainly thought so. After Dr Joseph Seegen (1822–1904) noticed that a hugely disproportionate number of the patients at his Carlsbad (Now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic) practice were Jewish, the term Judenkrankheit or “Jewish disease” became prevalent in German medical literature.

While it’s possible that people who moved from poverty in the shtetl to a prosperous city life where food was more plentiful and richer would have been exceptionally vulnerable to diabetes, there is little firm evidence. Lack of proper statistics or clear diagnostic tools means that all we are left with is the subjective opinion of a handful of doctors.

Back in the 21st century when both the causes and treatments for the condition are clearer, both Steven and Neil are reformed characters. A regular in the gym, Steven has lost two stones by eating more healthily. He takes medication twice daily, and his mild retinopathy – small bleeds at the back of the eye – are not getting any worse. He feels fit and healthy, not always the case for diabetes patients.

Neil has also slimmed down with help from the weight-loss drug Wegovy, which can help to reduce blood sugar. “I wish I didn’t have diabetes, but I’m very grateful that I live in times when we have all the medical help that we have now,” he says. And he sounds a warning note: “It’s not as if the information isn’t out there. Just google it. It’s not a special diet, it’s just the one everybody really should be on – more vegetables, less sugar, more exercise.”

diabetes.org.uk

It’s time we listened to deaf people in our community

Sounded out: those with hearing loss can feel isolated[Missing Credit]

As she gets older, Rache Benedyk says synagogue with its friendship and support network has become increasingly important. But there’s a problem. Severe hearing loss that struck in middle age has left her feeling isolated, with “some frustration and some resignation” affecting every area of her life, including shul.

Rache is not alone. Around one in three adults in the UK has deafness, hearing loss, or tinnitus. There are at least 35 different gene mutations known to cause hearing loss from birth, but in the Jewish community, one mutation is especially prevalent in Ashkenazi families. It is estimated that around a third of Jewish children in the UK who are born with deafness have inherited a faulty version of the gene Connexin 26, also known as GJB2.

A mutation on this gene interferes with the electrical signals emitted by the microscopic hairs in the cochlea, stopping the pulse from reaching the auditory nerve. Like all the genes connected with congenital deafness, this one is recessive, meaning that both parents need to have it in order to pass on problems.

Rache Benedyk[Missing Credit]

Despite this, inherited deafness in Anglo-Jewry affects only a few hundred people. Far more, like Rache, lose their hearing as they become older. With its ageing population, this is an issue that the Jewish community is struggling to address.

At Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue (CNSS), where Rache is a member, there is a hearing loop in the main prayer hall – a wireless system accessible by hearing aid users. Rache says it works well as long as the speaker talks into the microphone and she can sit at the very front of the ladies’ section.

Orthodox synagogues are able to use loop systems as long as they are switched on before Shabbat.

Some Reform and Liberal synagogues have them too, as does the New North London Masorti, some of which seem to work better than others. At Milton Keynes and District Reform, Stan Cohen sometimes leads services, but despite improvements in technology he and other hard-of-hearing congregants can still struggle to hear.

CNSS’s Coffee & Co talks programme is popular with older members, many of whom use hearing aids. It has taken time, effort and investment in new technology to make the events properly accessible to those with hearing loss, says Daniel Hockman, the main host and organiser.

Taking advice from the Jewish Deaf Association (JDA), they bought lapel microphones and a large screen with subtitles, making subtitles also available for people watching remotely.

The sound quality has been significantly improved with high quality loudspeakers. It’s not perfect, he admits, but “it’s as good as it’s going to get”.

Though pleased that many shuls are now grappling with the problem, Andrew Goodwin of the JDA thinks we are still in the Middle Ages. “If you have any kind of disability, you are not made to feel welcome as part of the congregation,” he says. Goodwin describes deafness as an invisible disability – “unless you have it yourself, you don’t really understand the impact”.

Rache agrees, saying attitudes matter just as much as technology. “If JDA would come up with general guidelines for communities to support deaf people, I think that would be a good way forward to encourage all shuls.”

“There are more and more people who are saying, ‘Yes, let’s do things, or let’s talk about it,’” says Andrew Goodwin “The challenge we have is not having everybody just talk and talk and talk. We need some action."

jdeaf.org.uk/

Deaf Awareness week, May 5-11 2025