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outitinm ancorm al
Chernobyl's 10th anniversary passes.
r
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PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
MR. Wit 11 11
STORAGE
III OUT-OF-SEASON II
■ With any S39.95 GARMENTS
incoming cleaning order. Just pay regular cleaning
charges in the fall. Excludes furs. Orders must be picked up by 10/7/96.
We clean, Glaze & Store Furs at Competitive Prices.
J
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Expires 7/31/96
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Ar m•-•01.--4 -------
400 , au.
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• SHIRTS LAUNDERED
On hangers, men's plain business shirts with any
incoming dry cleaning order. Excludes same day
service and all other discounts.
■ •
Expires 7/31/96
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T
en years ago, Arthur and
Rachil Abramovich were
getting ready to celebrate
their 37th wedding an-
niversary.
Mr. Abramovich was a truck
driver, and his wife was a math-
ematics teacher. They had no
special plans, though they did
plan to participate in May Day
parades on May 1 in their home-
town of Yelsk in the southern
part of Belarus.
It only takes a mere mention
of Chernobyl for Mrs.
Abramovich to break down into
tears. In a Resettlement Service
conference room, she shows a
photograph of a young-looking
lady with dark hair and an at-
tractive face. The five others in
the conference room now look at
a woman with limp, graying hair
and sad, sad expressions. Her
bulging eyes, a physical condi-
tion resulting from radiation ex-
posure, are the most obvious
evidence of her pain.
She has been in the United
States for eight months. She
brought the 1986 experience
with her.
There are many Ukrainian
and Belarus residents now liv-
ing at addresses in Oak Park
and Southfield, West Bloomfield
and other local areas. They live
quietly among us, having sur-
vived not only the struggle of em-
igration from a country that
made anti-Semitism a national
condition, but the 20th century's
worst nuclear accident.
There are many noble efforts
to help the victims of Chernobyl,
even here in Detroit, especially
from Chabad Lubavitch, but
these survivors live in a sort of
quiet desperation. Their stories
go vastly untold, and they suffer.
Rachil Abramovich was a
teacher for 34 years. She had to
teach one more year to be eligi-
ble for a state pension. As a re-
sult of her radiation exposure,
she lost her memory and devel-
oped hyperthyroidism, which
caused her eyes to bulge.
"When I became ill, disaster
came from every corner," she
said, in tears. "My health start-
ed to fail. We were not rich; we
were not poor. But when I
stopped working, we were fi-
nancially hurt as well."
She and her husband heard
rumors immediately after the ac-
cident — there had been trouble
at Chernobyl. Nobody in au-
thority would tell what hap-
pened. They were, instead, told
to make sure they marched on termine the child's sex at birth.
May 1.
Another nephew died of
"I remember seeing small chil- leukemia six years after the nu-
dren with nosebleeds," said Mrs. clear reactor was damaged. He
Abramovich. "I remember the was part of the cleanup crew.
rumors floating around. The
The Chernobyl victims gath-
minister of health told everyone ered at Resettlement Service in
not to worry — the radiation lev- Southfield shared feelings of
els were safe."
anger. Anger toward the gov-
Her husband, Arthur, a truck- ernment.
er in the clothing business, knew
'We were a huge group of peo-
that something was seriously ple demanding the truth," said
wrong. Many of the routes he Ms. Kravets. "Chernobyl was a
would normally take were closed. major tragedy, and the govern-
He heard from other drivers that ment tried to hide it from us."
there were prob-
lems.
"But there wasn't
anything you could
see or hear," he said.
"So, it was difficult
to tell exactly what
was going on."
The bitter taste in
their mouths. That's
what Mr. and Mrs.
Abramovich also re-
member. Their town
of Yelsk, not far from
Gomel, is 70 kilome-
ters (42 miles) from
Chernobyl.
Gomel now has a
thyroid cancer rate
600 times greater
than the pre-Cher-
nobyl rate. The
ground around the
city is still contami-
nated by radiation
that will remain well
into the next centu-
/T.
Boris Karasin as a Ukrainian ecologist.
Yeugeniya Shus-
terman, a retired
physics teacher from Kiev, also
Boris Karasin, a journalist
knew from the May 1 solidarity
and ecologist from Kiev who now
day in the Soviet Union that
lives in West Bloomfield, was
something was wrong. Children,
part of the "liquidation" team
she said, were passing out in the that closed down the plant. His
streets. By the middle of the job was to test and monitor the
month, she remembers the au- air for contamination. For four
thorities taking children away to days, he measured a radioactive
other cities, such as Moscow.
cloud.
In some contaminated areas,
Mr. Karasin made sure that
according to statistics from his voice was heard in recent
Chabad's Children of Chernobyl weeks, visiting the offices of The
campaign, 2 million children Jewish News with an opinion ar-
were at risk for a host of radia- ticle that ran in the April 26 edi-
tion-related diseases. Chabad tion. His passion to make sure
has been airlifting children from people remember Chernobyl is
the stricken area to Israel since real and sincere.
1990, and providing them with
"Chernobyl showed that we
medical treatment, housing, believe in the government, but it
food, clothing and education.
didn't do enough for its people,"
Zinaida Kravets, a former Yel- said Mr. Karasin. (Then-presi-
sk resident now living in Oak dent Mikhail) "Gorbachev did
Park, has difficulty speaking not come to the accident site, and
about Chernobyl. Her nephew many people were angered by
had a child whose anatomy was that. It was the first step to the
so deformed, doctors couldn't de- collapse of the Soviet Union."
❑