Vera Sharav and Nazism is a state of mind -And to my surprise, I had no competition.”

Sharav was born in Romania during World War II. A child survivor of the Holocaust, which claimed her father's life, she left a Ukrainian detention camp at the age of 3 and was cared for by relatives while her mother settled in the United States. When she was 8, Sharav and her mother were reunited in New York City, where she lives today.

She went to the City College of New York during the 1950s, and majored in art history. After marrying, she had two sons and returned to school for a master's degree in library science at the Pratt Institute in New York, graduating in 1971.

“I became an outspoken critic of modern medicine; a watchdog. And to my surprise, I had no competition.”

Her stance on biomedicine was sparked by a life-altering tragedy. In the 1980s, her teenage son was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder. Sharav and her husband pushed hard for access to clozapine, one of the first atypical antipsychotics then available. In 1994, after her son had been on clozapine (Clozaril, Fazaclo) for several years, he suddenly suffered a fatal reaction to the drug—a condition called neuroleptic malignant syndrome.