HaLapid-Spring Summer 2019
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<strong>2019</strong> SCJS CONFERENCE • June 30-July 2 • denver<br />
Keynote Speaker<br />
Jeff Wheelwright<br />
Our celebrated keynote speaker, author/journalist Jeff<br />
Wheelwright, takes us back to a pivotal time when<br />
genetic research, especially here in Colorado, was<br />
beginning to add to the rising awareness of the Iberian-Jewish<br />
heritage of the greater Southwest.<br />
A graduate of Yale (1969) and the Columbia Graduate School<br />
of Journalism (1971), Wheelwright worked in public television<br />
and as an editor for the monthly Life magazine. Over time,<br />
the study of history and religion liberated him from science<br />
writing, a previous focus.<br />
His first two books, “Degrees of Disaster,” about the Exxon<br />
Valdez oil spill (1994), and “The Irritable Heart,” about the<br />
Persian Gulf War illnesses (2001), brought national acclaim. The latter was<br />
supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Then he turned to<br />
human genetics for his next topic because of interest sparked by the Human<br />
Genome Project.<br />
Jeff Wheelwright<br />
His third book was about a breast-cancer mutation characteristic of Jews that<br />
came to light in a population of Catholic Hispanos in New Mexico and the<br />
San Luis Valley of Colorado. The mutation proves that its carriers have Jewish<br />
ancestry, at least in part. In 2008 he published an article, “The Secret of San Luis<br />
Valley,” in Smithsonian magazine, and in 2009 was awarded a J.S. Guggenheim<br />
Fellowship to support the writing of the book, “The Wandering Gene and the<br />
Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA,” published in 2012 by W.W. Norton.<br />
Members of the family he wrote about in the San Luis Valley may be joining Jeff<br />
as guests of SCJS on this special occasion.<br />
REMINDER<br />
conference Board<br />
Meeting Memo<br />
SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES<br />
SCJS members are invited to nominate<br />
themselves (or someone else) so that the<br />
board of directors may consider them<br />
prior to the conference in June. We seek<br />
additional Members-At-Large so that we<br />
may grow our board from which titled<br />
executive positions may emerge after<br />
a term or more of participation.<br />
Contact editor.lagranada@gmail.com<br />
<strong>HaLapid</strong> - SPRING / SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> / 5780 19
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