MACHADO JOSEPH DISEASE & SEPHARDIC LINK
by  Sheri Bashor

The words “whitewash”, or to “plaster over”   is a term used for a cover up.

“...when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with white-wash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it IS going to fall...”
NEVI’M/EZEKIEL 13:10

The “truth” is what I seek... I am not, nor do I claim to be a medical professional but I would like to present some facts that I believe have a definite connection between a genetic disease and many  Sephardic Jews.

Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder. In layman terms a  genetic neurological disease or stated simply an inherited disease of the central nervous system.  It was first thought that this disease originated in the Azore Islands.  If your parent has or
had the disease you have a 50/50 chance of getting the disease. This disease does not skip generations nor is it a respecter of persons.  This disease progresses year after year, the affected person becomes wheel chair bound, their body becomes stiff and ridged, they must depend on others for their primary care, and they are unable to communicate or be understood. The intellect is usually intact which means “one is trapped in a body that does not work; a virtual prison.”  My father had this disease (he died at 39 yrs. of age), as did his father, generation, after generation.  My sister now has this disease.

Approximately 5 years ago my Aunt RoseMarie Silva came back from the Azore Islands from a conference about MJD ~ she told me that she had “suspicions” that MJD came from a Sephardic Jew who lived on the Northern boarder of Portugal and Spain. That was the first time I had ever heard of any connection between Sephardic Jews and MJD.

Now years later, while doing research for my sister, I was amazed to see the “suspicions” of my Aunt RoseMarie begin to materialize. I present to you the following information.

From a medical paper (OMIM ENTRY 109150) it was written:  ”The possibility that the Joseph family was originally Sephardic Jews was raised by Sequeiros & Coutinho (1981) Mainland families originated in a mountainous and relatively inaccessible region of northeastern Portugal where large
communities of Sephardic Jews settled at one time. The Joseph family was from this area.

Another medical paper  “Origin of the Portuguese Mutation”  written about MJD expounds on this theory. From unpublished data, from Sequeiros and Sa Miranda “there is some preliminary evidence that the frequency of the Tay-Sachs disease gene is increased among  Portuguese patients with MJD and their relatives. Tay-Sachs has a high frequency particularly among Ashkenazi, and well as Sephardic Jews.”

It has been reported that MJD is found in Portugal, with the largest of these families along the Douro River, as far north as Freixo-de-Espada-a-Cinta to the Atlantic coast in Porto. MJD has been found
in families in Brazil, Angola, France, and Germany. One Brazilian patient claims to be of Jewish descent from Amsterdam (Coutinho, unpublished observation). Other reported families are from Japan, India, China, Australia, the Netherlands, and Israel!

I found a document written in 1994 with the caption  “Machado-Joseph (Azorean) disease in a Yemenite Jewish family in Israel.  Goldberg-Stern H, D’jaldetti R, Melamed E, Gadoth N  ...”we report the first Israeli Jewish family with MJD, originating from a remote village in Yemen.

From OMIM ENTRY 109150  Goldberg-Stern (1994) ~ Machado Joseph disease in a Yemenite Jewish kindred that originated from a remote village named Ta’izz. This family, incidentally named Yoseph, had no documentation of Portuguese ancestry. Portuguese trade connections with the Yemenites most likely did not reach Ta’izz which is far from the coast and is almost inaccessible
because of a wall of high mountains.

The Sackleer Faculty of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel reports a RESEARCH PROJECT titled   “The Israeli Pocket of Machado-Joseph Disease.”  Natan Gadoth, Professor

I found medical research articles written about MJD in 1996 and 1997  from the Department of Human Genetics, Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.

There is one hospital in Israel which provides care for patients with Machado-Joseph disease.

What does all this information mean? There is a definite connection between MJD and Israel. I believe MJD could be a physical marker to jewish blood ~ for all “Conversos, Marranos, Crypto, “new Christian” and anusim Jews” This would mean the “truth” about the Portuguese Inquisition ~  is one step closer to reality.

In no way do I want to blame the Jewish people.  I have been told that this information could impose one more stigma on the Jews, so better not to write it. I have been told there is no solid proof ~ this is all  theory so why write about it? I write because I believe it to be truth ~ not theory. There is to much evidence to dismiss this “as just theory.”

Facts are facts,  no one can “whitewash” our existence any more!

“Thus said the LORD G-D: I have indeed removed them far among the nations and have scattered them among the countries, and I have become to them a diminished sanctity in the countries whither they have gone. Yet say: Thus said the LORD G-D: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble  you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the Land of Israel.”   NEVI’M/EZEKIEL 11:16-17

“Saudades” I long for the “truth”
Respectively Submitted,

Sheri Bashor
bashor@snowcrest.net

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum