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Louise Levy, ‘supercentenarian’ subject of longevity study among Ashkenazi Jews, dies at 112
(JTA) — Louise Levy, who was the oldest living resident of New York State and a participant in a genetic study of long-living Ashkenazi Jews, died July 17 in Greenwich, Connecticut. She was 112.
“Throughout her long life, which spanned two global pandemics, she remained a lady in every sense of the word,” her family wrote in an obituary. “She will be unfailingly remembered for her grace, positivity, and kindness.”
Levy, who during her working life served as office manager in a housewares business run by her husband Seymour, was one of hundreds of Jews 95 and older who were recruited in 1998 for a study by the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx. The cohort was chosen because its members, including some Holocaust survivors, are a homogeneous group.
The Longevity Genes Project aims to explore the “good” genes that allow people to live well into the triple digits. “I hope that in our lifetime, we’ll be able to use medicine in order to prevent age-related diseases and improve our quality of life,” its Israeli-born director, Nir Barzilai, said in a statement on the project’s website. “I think it’s our obligation as scientists to do that.”
Its findings so far include mutations in cholesterol genes and a growth hormone gene that are associated with longevity, and evidence that longevity is highly likely to be inherited. Despite their age, many in the study cohort smoked more, exercised less and weighed more than people who had died much younger. (Levy smoked cigarettes until 1965, the year she turned 55.)
Levy, meanwhile, once told an interviewer that her own family history didn’t appear to assure a long life. “My mother was never really a healthy woman,” she told the New York Daily News (although she did live deep into the 20th century). Her father died of cancer and her only brother, Ralph, died of tuberculosis in 1933 at age 34.
Levy often ascribed her longevity to a daily glass of red wine and a low-cholesterol diet, and she said she never eats sweets. “I have orange juice, toast and coffee for breakfast which I’ve had all my life. I eat the same thing for lunch every single day, which is yogurt,” Levy told WCBS 880 in 2019. “I have a feeling that I started eating yogurt when I heard that that’s why the Russians live to such a ripe old age because they eat a lot of the yogurt. So I have that for lunch every single day with a fruit and crackers.
Her family, meanwhile, felt that her “preternatural ability to take life as it came — with the utmost equanimity — must have played a role. Once asked to reflect on the values she prized most, she named honesty, loyalty, and being helpful to others.”
Louise Morris Wilk was born on Nov. 1, 1910. Her parents, Louis Wilk and Mollie Morris, were German Jews who immigrated to Pennsylvania shortly after the American Civil War. Louise grew up in Cleveland, where her father worked as a photographer and movie theater manager. The family moved to Manhattan, where Louis Will illustrated movie posters.
Louise graduated from Wadleigh High School in Harlem before attending Hunter College, although she did not get her degree.
She and Seymour Levy were married on April 28, 1939, and had two children: a son, Ralph, and daughter, Lynn. Both are in their 70s.
In the early 1950s, Louise and Seymour left the Upper West Side and moved to the Westchester County suburb of Larchmont. Louise worked alongside her husband at I. Levy Sons until his death in 1991, and continued to work into her 90s for the man who took over the business.
In what her family calls her “third act,” Levy moved into the Osborn, a senior living community in Rye, New York. There, they write, she “became one of the most popular residents, and a kind of minor celebrity — famed for her indomitable spirit, sense of humor, and, increasingly, her longevity.”
There are 23 verified “supercentenarians” (110 years or older) including one in Japan born the exact same day as Levy.
Levy is survived by her two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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The post Louise Levy, ‘supercentenarian’ subject of longevity study among Ashkenazi Jews, dies at 112 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In its latest salvo against the Jewish state, the United Nations (UN) condemned Israel for executing retaliatory strikes against the Houthi terror group in Yemen.
“The Secretary-General condemns escalation between Yemen and Israel,” Stéphanie Tremblay, a UN spokesperson, said in Thursday statements on behalf of UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about intensified escalation in Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming. The airstrikes reportedly resulted in numerous casualties including at least three killed and dozens more injured” Tremblay added.
On Thursday, Israel launched a barrage of missile attacks on Houthi bases in Yemen, provoking international outrage. Israel targeted a major airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, and power stations, locations the Jewish state claims were used by the terror group to sneak in both Iranian weapons and high-ranking Iranian officials.
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an airstrike aimed at Ben Gurion airport, claiming that the attacks were carried out in retaliation against Israel’s targeting of Sana’a International airport.
The Israeli strikes followed days of Houthi missile and drone launches towards the Jewish state’s airspace. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked the Jewish state in the year following the Oct. 7 slaughters in Israel. Officials associated with terrorist organization claims that it will continue to attack Israel until the so-called “genocide” in Gaza ceases.
In reference to the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned.”
Israeli officials have long accused the UN of having a bias against the Jewish state. Last year, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel twice as often as it did all other countries. Meanwhile, of all the country-specific resolutions passed by the UNHRC, nearly half have condemned Israel, a seemingly disproportionate focus on the lone democracy in the Middle East.
Weeks following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, the UN adopted a resolution calling for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group. The UN failed to pass a measure condemning the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
In June, the UN put Israel on its so-called “list of shame” of countries that kill children in armed conflict. Israel is considered to be the only democracy on the list.
The post United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Jets Attack Syria-Lebanon Border Crossings to Stop Arms Amuggling
Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike in southern Lebanon village, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, Oct. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhar
Israeli jets struck seven crossing points along the Syria-Lebanon border on Friday, aiming to cut the flow of weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops also seized a truck mounted with a 40-barrel rocket launcher in southern Lebanon, part of a haul from various areas that included explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 automatic rifles, the military said.
The commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar, said Hezbollah was trying to smuggle weapons into Lebanon to test Israel’s ability to stop them.
“This must not be tolerated,” he said in a statement.
Under the terms of a Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement, Israel is supposed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon in phases while unauthorised Hezbollah military facilities south of the Litani River are to be dismantled.
However, each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, intended to end more than a year of fighting that began with Hezbollah missile strikes on Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, from Gaza.
On Thursday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon called for Israeli forces to withdraw, citing what it said were repeated violations of the deal.
Israel, which destroyed large parts of Hezbollah’s missile stocks during weeks of operations in southern Lebanon, has said it will not permit weapons to be smuggled to Hezbollah through Syria.
Israel has also conducted attacks against the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen in recent days and pledged to continue its campaign against Iranian-backed militant groups across the region.
The post Israeli Jets Attack Syria-Lebanon Border Crossings to Stop Arms Amuggling first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at the 9th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on April 16, 2023. Photo: Cover Media via Reuters Connect
Actress Mila Kunis began embracing and feeling proud of her Jewish heritage when she met her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and even more so after having children, she told Israeli activist and author Noa Tishby this week.
“For me, it happened when I met my husband,” the “Goodrich” star, 41, said of her former “That ’70s Show” costar, 46, who she has been married to since 2015.
Although Kutcher is not Jewish, he was a follower of Kabbalah and was frequently photographed visiting the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles when he was married to actress Demi Moore from 2005-2013. Their wedding was also reportedly officiated by a Kabbalah Centre teacher. It remains unclear if he continues to follow Kabbalah. Nevertheless, Kunis joked that Kutcher is Jewish “by choice,” not by lineage, and that his interest in Judaism sparked Kunis to reconnect with her Jewish roots.
“I fell in love with my religion because he explained it to me,” said Kunis, who voices Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series “Family Guy.”
Kunis made the comments while joining Tishby to light candles on Thursday for the second night of Hanukkah. The two joined forces as part of Tishby’s “#BringOnTheLight campaign,” which is an eight-part video series on YouTube dedicated to spreading the message of Jewish resilience, pride and unity throughout the Jewish holiday.
Kunis and Kutcher together have two children — daughter Wyatt, 10, and son Dimitri, 8. The actress was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and moved to the United States at the age of eight. She told Tishby that she did not adhere to any Jewish traditions while growing up. “I always knew I was Jewish but I was told to never talk about,” she said. “I think because I was in a country that didn’t allow for religion.” The “Bad Moms” star added that her children also helped her tap into the religious side of Judaism.
“I was raised culturally Jewish. So for me, it’s a culture,” she said. “And as I had kids, and my kids very much identity with the religion aspect of it, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess we’re doing Shabbat and the candles. And there are so many beautiful traditions.”
“I never lit Hanukkah candles until I had kids,” she further noted.
When Kunis lit the menorah with Tishby for the second night of Hanukkah, they called Kutcher for some help. Both women were unsure if they needed to light the candles from left to right or from right to left, and asked Kutcher for guidance.
Kunis also talked about being raised with a lot of Jewish guilt and superstition. Listing another things that are culturally Jewish about her, she shared, “I have a fear of not having enough food and my fear of somebody being hungry. The worst thing my kids can say to me is, ‘I’m hungry.’”
“Food fixes everything. You’re tired, eat some food. You’re cranky, eat some food,” she joked. “A health person would say, ‘This is unhealthy and you’re doing something wrong.’ And I understand. I’m working on it. But it’s just something that is embedded in me.”
The post Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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