Israeli, U.S. drives aiming to increase number of non-Ashkenazi bone marrow donors

A non-Ashkenazi Jew at best has a 40 percent chance of finding a donor, compared to nearly 70 percent for Ashkenazim, said Jay Feinberg, founder and executive director of Gift for Life, a bone marrow, blood stem cell and umbilical cord blood registry dedicated to recruitment within the U.S. Jewish community.

This discrepancy is due in part, Feinberg said, to the low number of non-Ashkenazi donors in the international donor registry -- in particular Jews from the Iraqi, Persian, Georgian, Bukharian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni and Ethiopian communities.