Michelle is a 43-year-old teacher who lives in Great Neck, New York. Like many women in her close-knit Persian Jewish community, she didn’t think seriously about breast cancer. 

That changed just over a year ago. That’s when doctors found something suspicious after her annual mammogram and asked her to come back for a sonogram — then a biopsy, and finally an MRI. 

“On July 2, 2025, I got the definitive diagnosis: triple-positive breast cancer. It was a lot to take in,” said Michelle, a mother of four children ranging in age from 8 to 17, who didn’t want to use her real name for privacy reasons. “My oldest son was on a trip abroad with his friends, so I waited to share the news until he was back. I told them I was going through chemo, but obviously kept most of the medical details to myself. They handled it very well.”

Michelle was aware that Jewish women of Ashkenazi, or Eastern European, origin were far more likely to inherit BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations than the general population. But she had no idea that women of Sephardic or Middle Eastern origin were also at elevated risk for these mutations, which increase the risk of certain cancers, including breast and ovarian cancer.

Statistics show that among the general population, 1 in 400 women carry the BRCA mutations. Among Ashkenazi Jews, however, the probability of carrying this mutation is 10 times higher, occurring in 1 out of 40 individuals. When it comes to Sephardic Jews — descendants of Jews who hail from the Iberian Peninsula — the risk is 1 in 140. 

“I’m the first woman in my family to be diagnosed with the disease,” said Michelle, who, like most individuals with breast cancer, is not a carrier of the BRCA mutation. “Nobody in my immediate circle has ever had it, and I didn’t know why genetic testing would apply to me.” Michelle had to do six rounds of chemotherapy to shrink her tumor, which was more than two centimeters long. And then she underwent a double mastectomy.

So did bestselling cookbook author Kim Kushner of New York City, who at the age of 40 was surprised to learn that she carried the BRCA2 mutation.

“As a Canadian-born Moroccan Jew, I — like many people — associated these risks more with the Ashkenazi community, so my diagnosis was an important reminder that hereditary cancer can affect Jewish families of all backgrounds,” Kushner said. “My journey reinforced the importance of genetic testing, family history and being proactive about our health.”

Kushner is on the board of Sharsheret, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Jewish breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer patients — and their families — in the United States and Israel. 

“Through my work with Sharsheret, an incredible organization that provides invaluable resources, support and education, I hope to help raise awareness, encourage conversations and empower others to make informed decisions for themselves and their families,” she said.

Bita Nehoray is a genetic counselor at City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles, where for the past 14 years she’s focused on those with a personal or family history of cancer. “There are a lot more data and medical literature related to well-known mutations in people of Ashkenazi descent, but founder variants are also found in those of Sephardi and Mizrahi backgrounds,” she said. “A lot of that has to do with history, and how Jews have had to disperse over time.”

Peggy Cottrell, a genetic counselor with Sharsheret — whose name is Hebrew for “chain” — said that while the risk for Sephardi Jews isn’t as high as for Ashkenazim, it’s important to remember it is much higher than for non-Jews.

“These are very old mutations and tend to be seen among all Jews,” Cottrell said. “People think of BRCA as only being an Ashkenazi thing, and that’s not the case. That’s why anybody who has a family history of breast cancer, male breast, ovarian, pancreatic, melanoma or prostate cancer needs to be very careful and get a screening test.”