Unless you are living under a rock, you have heard of autism. And if you have heard of autism, you have heard of the Asperger syndrome. And if you have heard of Asperger syndrome, you probably know that it's named after Hans Asperger. But we're willing to bet that you have never heard of Grunya Sukharava. (Even we have not heard of Grunya Sukhareva prior to researching this profile, and we claim to know a lot about Soviet Jews!)

Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychologist who diagnosed what would become known as autism in 1925, 19 years before Asperger did. Her work was even published in German, Asperger's native language. What gives?

As much as one can try to sugarcoat it, Asperger was a Nazi, plain and simple. He was also an antisemite who benefited a great deal from Jewish doctors being kicked out of Vienna. On top of that, he was biased against women... So is it any wonder why he pretended that the work of a Jewish woman did not exist and took all the credit for himself?

So, let's rename Asperger syndrome to Sukhareva syndrome. Sure, it's a bit tougher to pronounce, but let's give credit when credit is due!