Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
UOJ WILL NOT THROW IN THE TOWEL-BECAUSE HE CAN'T!
UOJ archives - Published originally July 22, 2006
I must admit, I was really upset on Friday for a very brief period of time.
The truth is that nobody would be caught dead at the house of fress owned by a sleaze-ball like Lipa. I was realistically asking myself if people are going to do something serious about the corruption of power -- infested like termites in wood-- in the Orthodox Jewish community. This corruption permitted sexual abusers to exist in broad daylight without much fear of being exposed. People say; he only touched his tuchis, he only talked sex in middle of the night with kids he yanked out of bed, he only rubbed up against his genitals, he only put the child on his lap, there was no penetration, this happened years ago, he is an old man past his sexual prime...leave him alone, and on and on and on.
So what do I do? I have stumbled upon behavior by rabbis that should put them in jail. Not all rabbis, not even the majority of them, but a very large immoral minority of them are evil and rotten to the core. Oh, you say, come on that is just not true! I ask you, kindly look around you, has your rabbi or rosh yeshiva spoken about sexual abuse in the community from the pulpit? Of course not, there's dead silence!
You know why, because they ALL know it's true and are afraid of rocking their leaking boat. This makes them complicit to the crimes that are perpetrated on our children; and in a court of law they would be considered co-conspirators if they knew about a crime and tacitly permitted it to happen by not contacting the authorities with that information.
For example; let's say Lipa knew Yudi was molesting kids and kept him around children for his own personal reasons anyway. Let's say the D.A. decides to criminally prosecute Lipa. If that can be proven in court, that Lipa knew a crime was happening under his watch and not only didn't stop it, but did not call the police; if a jury is convinced of that fact, Lipa goes to jail.
UOJ will continue because it must! This blog turned out to be the pipeline to sanity in the Orthodox world. Parents write to me; a nine year old child writes me that he's being abused, a seventy year old woman writes to me that her life was destroyed because she was molested as a very young child. I could go on, but I think you get the message. This blog filled a much needed void, and I don't intend to abrogate the authority --- given to me by the people --- needing a place to turn to for help.
However, I must change the way I operate. I can no longer be a one-man band. I need help, no money, just help. I need people who agree with my mindset - to volunteer to share this responsibility with me. I will expect that these people will be highly intelligent, very caring about our plight, and very well respected by their peers. No confidence of any person who contacts us, will ever be violated. We must get rid of this enemy before they destroy Judaism. Children are leaving the fold in droves.
The latest numbers are that 100,000 people are leaving Orthodox Judaism yearly, globally - openly and privately! That means one million people that could have made a difference to the well-being of the Jews will have gone away in the next ten years! Do not think that those numbers will not affect you; if it won't be your child, it very well may be your grandchild.
I will be sending out e-mails to people that I have communicated with over the past year or more. I will ask you to get directly involved. I will be contacting both males and females. I urge anyone that cares about our future to please contact me at: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com.
I would like therapists, attorneys, doctors and caring rabbis to contact me along with all people of good will. You will be assigned your own passcode to get into the new site that we will open together. You will post your own feelings and sentiments. The more people that join our group, the better all of us will be. We can monitor each other by running our thoughts by each other. We can reduce the corruption by your participation. The evildoers will continue to fear us and that may hopefully prevent their criminal behavior or negligence from proliferating.
Please,I need your help, I can no longer do it alone. I am not capable of responding to thousands of e-mails and comments per week. I have approximately 23,000 e-mails and comments that I never opened. I have no idea if kids are pleading for help or parents are begging for my intervention. And finally, I am not a professional therapist, I am not capable of advising victims what is in their best interests. I do know one thing with absolute certainty; I have saved many of our children from committing suicide, running away from home, and hurting themselves by drowning their sorrows in alcohol and drugs.
I do not want any credit for anything, I just want to make our world a better place for all of us. Please volunteer; if I e-mail you please respond affirmatively. If I do not know you, please contact me, your identity will never be exposed if you so choose.
I will not throw in the towel on our children, I will not throw in the towel on our people, and I will not throw in the towel, so our ancestors would not have died in vain struggling to make a living, breathing, vibrant Judaism for the generations.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
THERE WAS A RESTAURANT THAT WAS CALLED KOSHER FOR FORTY YEARS UNTIL..............
From the UOJ Archives - originally published July 20, 2006
There was this restaurant in a very Jewish neighborhood that was owned and run single-handedly by a man with a long beard, and always wore long black clothing and a big black hat even as he stirred the chicken soup.
The entire neighborhood frequented this fleishig (meat) restaurant because they trusted him to serve them kosher food. He certainly looked the part of a religious person; always said baruch Hashem when asked how he was. Everyone was so pleased with this restaurant; it was convenient, well-maintained, housed in a new building, and very upscale. A regular family that was middle-income could not afford to eat there because the prices were very expensive. Yet, everyone wanted to be seen there, and everyone was anxious to tell their friends that they ate there.
So for forty five years people were under the impression that the owner of this restaurant was an upstanding person that they could trust implicitly with kashrus.
One day this person was called to a din Torah for absconding with millions of dollars from his previous employer, and all the proprietary information which was the exclusive property of his previous employer. Not only that, this nice and honest individual used the EXACT same name of his previous employer's restaurant, because his employer's restaurant was considered the finest in New York, was established for fifty years prior, and was frequented by all of the most prominent rabbis.
This restaurant owner, for simplicity purposes, let's call him Lipa. So Lipa hemmed and hawed for years, dragged his feet, delayed and delayed until he could delay no more. Ultimately bais din ruled that he MUST return all the money taken under false pretenses, change the name of his restaurant, and was forbidden to use any and all contacts that he had stolen from his previous employer.
Of course Lipa denied ever doing such terrible things, but in order for him to demonstrate what a nice guy he was, he changed the name of his restaurant. He never returned the stolen money and continued to use ALL the proprietary information that he had stolen from his previous employer. That shrewd devil kept on contacting his previous employer's customer base and insisted that his food was MUCH MORE KOSHER than his previous employer's; in matter of fact that was the reason he left, the food at that restaurant was NOT kosher enough for him.
Time passed and Lipa's restaurant was prospering. Rumors started to surface however that Lipa's employee in charge of the kashrut, was sneaking in non-kosher food into the establishment, because the non-kosher meat was younger and softer, just more pleasant to handle. Let's call this employee Yudi for identification purposes.
Now Yudi used to sneak this non-kosher meat in through the basement when nobody was looking. Yudi loved the excitement of touching this young, tender, non-approved meat.
Since the restaurant was doing so well, Yudi was now in line for a promotion. Yes, Yudi was promoted to handle ALL the youngest of fresh meat and poultry. Lipa was so happy, business was booming.
Now there was a group of people that saw Yudi sneaking in non-kosher meat, so they called the restaurant to bais din. The problem was bais din said the cows and chickens were not reliable witnesses. Moreover a real famous rabbi, you know, like a real life gadol said, that since nobody saw Yudi actually penetrate the cow with his jagged knife, which would render the animal not kosher, the meat must be assumed kosher.
The bais din dismissed without a verdict, rendering Yudi a reliable kosher young meat supervisor. Despite the ugly rumors continuing, Yudi and Lipa were happy as pigs in shit.
But there was one guy in the Jewish neighborhood who knew this was a sham. So he stood on his soapbox on Ocean Parkway and ranted and raved like a lunatic that this bais din was a sham and that Lipa and Yudi were guilty as charged. Everyone dismissed this guy as a nut-case, he just hated rabbis with long beards and black clothing.
Day after day this nut-job pulled out his soapbox and ranted and ranted and ranted......and ranted.............
Then one day people started contacting this crazy and said they saw Yudi sneaking in and touching this forbidden meat. Before you knew it tens of people came forward with exact details how Yudi did this.
A famous attorney - extremely experienced in meat handling illegally, was convinced that the Lipa and Yudi team were guilty as hell. So convinced was he, that he agreed that he would not be paid unless he won the lawsuit. This attorney never lost an improper meat handling case yet.
Dear readers, please comment and tell me if you would trust the kashrus and eat in this restaurant ever again.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon on Leib Pinter's book. "Profound, interesting and informative!"
Don't Give Up- Even when the FBI comes to get you!
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By - Rabbi Leib Pinter
Bad news is a challenge.
It can be overwhelming - or it can point the way to growth and strength. This powerful and insightful book is important for everyone - for who has not seen or experienced pain, suffering, tragedy? The author, Rabbi Leib Pinter, is a noted scholar and a man with great sensitivity and experience. He has known, consulted, and read the works of many of the greatest rabbis and spiritual guides of the last two generations - and distilled a wealth of wisdom into a book that provides guidance, hope, and optimism in the face of adversity. Don't Give Up is filled with fascinating stories and anecdotes, sayings and interpretations of the Sages and leaders through the centuries, as well as talks given to communities that were straining to cope with crisis, by contemporary luminaries such as Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon. Profound, interesting and informative, t....
Available at artscroll.com - Discount Code:UOJ
Don't Give Up
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By Rabbi Leib Pinter
List Price: $23.99 - Make checks out to Yeshiva Torah Temimah - Pick up $15 in CASH GELT MEZUMEN - On The Corner Of Ocean Parkway and Caton in Kolko's Plymouth behind the passenger's side rear tire under the trunk in a Rubashkin meat shopping bag (made by illegals).
UOJ Discount: 18% CHAI!
You Pay Only: $15.01 mit a receipt!!
Catalog #: SHTIKDREK-FRIENDOFKOLKO
ISBN: PAYNOTAX-SCREWTHEUSGOVT.
In Stock - ings?: YES
Binding: Hardcover / Pages: 420 / Dimensions: 6" x 9" / Weight: 1.80 LBS
Published: by ArtScroll / Mesorah
Two Former Principals of Olympia Mortgage Indicted on Conspiracy, Wire Fraud and Bank Fraud Charges
May 8, 2008 - 11:28 AM US/Eastern
NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leib Pinter and Barry Goldstein, two former principals of Olympia Mortgage Corporation, a Brooklyn, N.Y., based mortgage lender, were indicted with conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud, Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, New York Field Division, announced today.
The defendants' initial appearances and arraignments are scheduled later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon.
The indictment charges two fraudulent schemes. In the first, Pinter is charged with fraud in connection with the theft of $44 million of payoff proceeds for refinanced mortgage loans funded by Fannie Mae, a federally chartered mortgage lending company, and serviced by Olympia (the "Fannie Mae Fraud"). In the second, Goldstein is charged with fraud in connection with Olympia's sale of a portfolio of non-performing mortgage loans to Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) using falsified loan histories (the "CSFB Fraud").
According to the indictment, Olympia originated and serviced mortgage loans owned by Fannie Mae, and some of those loans were refinanced through Olympia. When Olympia refinanced a Fannie Mae mortgage loan, Fannie Mae wired the money to an Olympia account. Olympia was then required to pay off the underlying mortgage loan by remitting the outstanding balance to Fannie Mae. Instead, Pinter allegedly misappropriated the proceeds of the refinanced mortgage loan for the benefit of Olympia. When the fraudulent scheme was revealed, Fannie Mae held nearly $44 million in unpaid, but refinanced, underlying mortgage loans from Olympia.
The indictment alleges that Olympia also sold loans to investors, including CSFB, now doing business as Credit Suisse. Prior to purchasing a loan, CSFB required Olympia to produce, among other things, a loan history detailing what payments homeowners made and whether those payments were made on time. Olympia owned several loans for which payments had not been made in a timely manner. In an effort to induce CSFB to purchase these non-performing loans, Goldstein directed Olympia employees to alter delinquent loan histories to reflect that all payments were made in a timely manner. CSFB purchased 12 loans whose histories had been fraudulently altered in this manner.
"Investigating and prosecuting mortgage-related fraud is a priority of the Department of Justice and this office," said U.S. Attorney Campbell. "Those who enrich themselves at the expense of mortgage lenders are on notice that such crimes will not be tolerated."
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Mershon said, "Commercial banks and government loan guarantors assume some risk in assessing mortgage loans. But deliberate misrepresentation by unscrupulous mortgage brokers, lenders or appraisers can trump even determined due diligence. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney are committing more resources than ever to policing the mortgage lending arena."
If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit wire fraud or wire fraud counts, Pinter faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit bank fraud or bank fraud counts, Goldstein faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.
The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan E. Green and Daniel A. Spector.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By - Rabbi Leib Pinter
Bad news is a challenge.
It can be overwhelming - or it can point the way to growth and strength. This powerful and insightful book is important for everyone - for who has not seen or experienced pain, suffering, tragedy? The author, Rabbi Leib Pinter, is a noted scholar and a man with great sensitivity and experience. He has known, consulted, and read the works of many of the greatest rabbis and spiritual guides of the last two generations - and distilled a wealth of wisdom into a book that provides guidance, hope, and optimism in the face of adversity. Don't Give Up is filled with fascinating stories and anecdotes, sayings and interpretations of the Sages and leaders through the centuries, as well as talks given to communities that were straining to cope with crisis, by contemporary luminaries such as Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon. Profound, interesting and informative, t....
Available at artscroll.com - Discount Code:UOJ
Don't Give Up
Rays of Light and Strength for the Hardest Times
By Rabbi Leib Pinter
List Price: $23.99 - Make checks out to Yeshiva Torah Temimah - Pick up $15 in CASH GELT MEZUMEN - On The Corner Of Ocean Parkway and Caton in Kolko's Plymouth behind the passenger's side rear tire under the trunk in a Rubashkin meat shopping bag (made by illegals).
UOJ Discount: 18% CHAI!
You Pay Only: $15.01 mit a receipt!!
Catalog #: SHTIKDREK-FRIENDOFKOLKO
ISBN: PAYNOTAX-SCREWTHEUSGOVT.
In Stock - ings?: YES
Binding: Hardcover / Pages: 420 / Dimensions: 6" x 9" / Weight: 1.80 LBS
Published: by ArtScroll / Mesorah
Two Former Principals of Olympia Mortgage Indicted on Conspiracy, Wire Fraud and Bank Fraud Charges
May 8, 2008 - 11:28 AM US/Eastern
NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leib Pinter and Barry Goldstein, two former principals of Olympia Mortgage Corporation, a Brooklyn, N.Y., based mortgage lender, were indicted with conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud, Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, New York Field Division, announced today.
The defendants' initial appearances and arraignments are scheduled later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon.
The indictment charges two fraudulent schemes. In the first, Pinter is charged with fraud in connection with the theft of $44 million of payoff proceeds for refinanced mortgage loans funded by Fannie Mae, a federally chartered mortgage lending company, and serviced by Olympia (the "Fannie Mae Fraud"). In the second, Goldstein is charged with fraud in connection with Olympia's sale of a portfolio of non-performing mortgage loans to Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) using falsified loan histories (the "CSFB Fraud").
According to the indictment, Olympia originated and serviced mortgage loans owned by Fannie Mae, and some of those loans were refinanced through Olympia. When Olympia refinanced a Fannie Mae mortgage loan, Fannie Mae wired the money to an Olympia account. Olympia was then required to pay off the underlying mortgage loan by remitting the outstanding balance to Fannie Mae. Instead, Pinter allegedly misappropriated the proceeds of the refinanced mortgage loan for the benefit of Olympia. When the fraudulent scheme was revealed, Fannie Mae held nearly $44 million in unpaid, but refinanced, underlying mortgage loans from Olympia.
The indictment alleges that Olympia also sold loans to investors, including CSFB, now doing business as Credit Suisse. Prior to purchasing a loan, CSFB required Olympia to produce, among other things, a loan history detailing what payments homeowners made and whether those payments were made on time. Olympia owned several loans for which payments had not been made in a timely manner. In an effort to induce CSFB to purchase these non-performing loans, Goldstein directed Olympia employees to alter delinquent loan histories to reflect that all payments were made in a timely manner. CSFB purchased 12 loans whose histories had been fraudulently altered in this manner.
"Investigating and prosecuting mortgage-related fraud is a priority of the Department of Justice and this office," said U.S. Attorney Campbell. "Those who enrich themselves at the expense of mortgage lenders are on notice that such crimes will not be tolerated."
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Mershon said, "Commercial banks and government loan guarantors assume some risk in assessing mortgage loans. But deliberate misrepresentation by unscrupulous mortgage brokers, lenders or appraisers can trump even determined due diligence. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney are committing more resources than ever to policing the mortgage lending arena."
If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit wire fraud or wire fraud counts, Pinter faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. If convicted of either the conspiracy to commit bank fraud or bank fraud counts, Goldstein faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.
The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan E. Green and Daniel A. Spector.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
ALL PEOPLE WITH AN IQ OF FIFTY OR BELOW ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THE YE"SHIVAH" TORAH TEMIMAH CIRCUS MONDAY NIGHT!
UOJ ARCHIVES - June 10, 2006
******SPECIAL PERFORMANCES BY YUDI KOLKO THE WORLD CLASS BEITZIM JUGGLER & *********LIPA THE CLOWN/GONIFF/MAGICIAN MARGULIES - WATCH HIM MAKE YOUR MONEY VANISH FROM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IN TO HIS - RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! LISTEN TO HIM TELL YOU STORIES THAT YOU NEVER HEARD BEFORE, AND CAN ONLY BE HEARD BY THIS NOW WORLD FAMOUS MAGGID OF SHEKER.
THIS IS AN EVENT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS, BRING YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN (ESPECIALLY THE BOYS BETWEEN 9-14 YEARS OF AGE) TO WATCH THE GREATEST FREAK SHOW IN JEWISH HISTORY.
Click Images To Enlarge:
Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools
One Belmont Avenue, Suite 618, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1609
(610) 617-1100 Fax: (610) 617-1106
info@ces-msa.org
NOTICE:
Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools HAS ACCREDITED THE SCHOOL BELOW. DUE TO THE CHARGES OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND COVER UP ALLEGED AGAINST THE SCHOOL THE CERTIFICATION IS BEING REVIEWED. WE REQUEST THAT ANYONE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHARGES CONTACT US AT THE ABOVE. ALL INFORMATION WILL BE HELD IN ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE.
SCHOOL:
Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah
Head Of School: Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad
School Information: 555 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11218
Phone: 718-853-8500
Fax: 718-438-5779
E-mail: apple@ytt.edu
School Details: Level Of School: K-12
School Type: Religious School
Enrollment Size: 858
First Accredited Date: 5/1/2003
Last Accredited Date: 5/1/2003
The current homepage was last updated: 5/31/2006
District: NOT PART OF A SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS
******************************************************
Abuse changes brains of suicide victims
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Tuesday - May 6, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide victims who were abused as children have clear genetic changes in their brains, Canadian researchers reported on Tuesday in a finding they said shows neglect can cause biological effects.
The findings offer potential ways to find people at high risk of suicide, and perhaps to treat them and prevent future suicides.
And, the researchers said, they also offer insights into how neglect and abuse can perpetuate unhealthy behavior through the generations.
Moshe Szyf of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues studied the brains of 18 men who committed suicide and who were also abused or neglected as children, and compared them to 12 men who also died suddenly but from other causes, and who were not abused, although some had various psychiatric problems such as anxiety disorders.
They found changes in the genetic material of all 18 suicide victims. The changes were not in the genes themselves, but in the ribosomal RNA, which is the genetic material that makes proteins that in turn make cells function.
These changes involved a chemical process called methylation, a so-called epigenetic change involving the processes of turning genes on and off, they reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, available at http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002085 .
"The big remaining questions are whether scientists could detect similar changes in blood DNA -- which could lead to diagnostic tests -- and whether we could design interventions to erase these differences in epigenetic markings," Szyf said in a statement.
Dr. Eric Nestler of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas said both drugs and psychotherapy may act to reverse some of these changes......
******SPECIAL PERFORMANCES BY YUDI KOLKO THE WORLD CLASS BEITZIM JUGGLER & *********LIPA THE CLOWN/GONIFF/MAGICIAN MARGULIES - WATCH HIM MAKE YOUR MONEY VANISH FROM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IN TO HIS - RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! LISTEN TO HIM TELL YOU STORIES THAT YOU NEVER HEARD BEFORE, AND CAN ONLY BE HEARD BY THIS NOW WORLD FAMOUS MAGGID OF SHEKER.
THIS IS AN EVENT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS, BRING YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN (ESPECIALLY THE BOYS BETWEEN 9-14 YEARS OF AGE) TO WATCH THE GREATEST FREAK SHOW IN JEWISH HISTORY.
Click Images To Enlarge:
Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools
One Belmont Avenue, Suite 618, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1609
(610) 617-1100 Fax: (610) 617-1106
info@ces-msa.org
NOTICE:
Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools HAS ACCREDITED THE SCHOOL BELOW. DUE TO THE CHARGES OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND COVER UP ALLEGED AGAINST THE SCHOOL THE CERTIFICATION IS BEING REVIEWED. WE REQUEST THAT ANYONE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHARGES CONTACT US AT THE ABOVE. ALL INFORMATION WILL BE HELD IN ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE.
SCHOOL:
Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah
Head Of School: Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad
School Information: 555 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11218
Phone: 718-853-8500
Fax: 718-438-5779
E-mail: apple@ytt.edu
School Details: Level Of School: K-12
School Type: Religious School
Enrollment Size: 858
First Accredited Date: 5/1/2003
Last Accredited Date: 5/1/2003
The current homepage was last updated: 5/31/2006
District: NOT PART OF A SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS
******************************************************
Abuse changes brains of suicide victims
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Tuesday - May 6, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide victims who were abused as children have clear genetic changes in their brains, Canadian researchers reported on Tuesday in a finding they said shows neglect can cause biological effects.
The findings offer potential ways to find people at high risk of suicide, and perhaps to treat them and prevent future suicides.
And, the researchers said, they also offer insights into how neglect and abuse can perpetuate unhealthy behavior through the generations.
Moshe Szyf of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues studied the brains of 18 men who committed suicide and who were also abused or neglected as children, and compared them to 12 men who also died suddenly but from other causes, and who were not abused, although some had various psychiatric problems such as anxiety disorders.
They found changes in the genetic material of all 18 suicide victims. The changes were not in the genes themselves, but in the ribosomal RNA, which is the genetic material that makes proteins that in turn make cells function.
These changes involved a chemical process called methylation, a so-called epigenetic change involving the processes of turning genes on and off, they reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, available at http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002085 .
"The big remaining questions are whether scientists could detect similar changes in blood DNA -- which could lead to diagnostic tests -- and whether we could design interventions to erase these differences in epigenetic markings," Szyf said in a statement.
Dr. Eric Nestler of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas said both drugs and psychotherapy may act to reverse some of these changes......