Spirituality

Sui ldin
eitte

SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News

"DUDU" FISHER

CONCERT

TO BENEFIT

CHILDREN

AFFECTED BY

CHERNOBYL

BLAST.

C hernobyl. The very word evokes tragedy.
Located in the northern Ukraine region
of the former Soviet Union, Chernobyl is the
site of the worst nuclear disaster the world
has known. To help children affected by the blast,
Chabad's Children of Chernobyl's Michigan chapter
(CCOC) will host a benefit concert on Wednesday,
Nov. 8, in Southfield featuring Israeli singing star
David "Dudu" Fisher.
On April 26, 1986, when Reactor No. 4 at the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, about
75,000 kilograms of radioactive material was released
into the atmosphere. In comparison, the bombing of
Hiroshima released only 30-40 kilograms of radioactive
material. The Three Mile Island (Pa.) nuclear accident
released 15 curies (an atomic measurement) of radia-
tion; Chernobyl released 200 million curies.
Compounding the tragedy of the blast, the former
Soviet style of news reporting kept the catastrophe
under wraps for the first three days. The explosion
occurred on a Friday when families in Kiev, the densely
populated city nearest to Chernobyl, were out and
about on a national weekend holiday. Picnicking and
swimming, they were unaware of the dangerous conta-
mination to which they were exposing themselves.
By the time the terrible truth was known and chil-
dren were evacuated, most had already been exposed to
highly dangerous levels of radiation. Food, air and
water were poisoned for hundreds of miles around, and
remain so to this day.

At Greatest Risk

Children are especially susceptible to radiation poison-
ing. After the explosion, most of the region's young
people developed damaged immune systems, resulting
in eye disease, disorders of the endocrine, digestive and
respiratory systems, and diseases like leukemia.
The World Health Organization has found the cur-
rent rate of thyroid cancer in children from the

Chernobyl region (14 years after the explosion) to be
more than 200 times the world norm.
To save the area's Jewish children from the devastat-
ing effects of the nuclear fallout and to give them hope
for a healthy future, in 1990, the Chabad Youth
Organization of Israel began a rescue mission called
Chabad's Children of Chernobyl. The philanthropic
organisation raises money to airlift children from the
contaminated areas and bring them to Israel. There,
they are settled, acculturated, treated medically and fed
specially enriched diets. Within a year, most regain full
health; according to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, the
rehabilitation rate for the rescued children is 90 percent.

Joyful Reunions

More than 2,000 children between ages 5 and 16 have
been brought to live in Israel. When the parents are
able to leave the former Soviet Union and immigrate to
Israel, they are joyously reunited with their children;
more than 1,200 families have been reunited.
The average cost per child is $15,000. For 2,000-
plus kids, that's more than $30 million. Luckily,
CCOC has some big-name supporters, including
director Steven Spielberg and novelist Elie Wiesel.
More than 1,000 Jewish children still remain in the
Chernobyl area. CCOC's goal is to bring them all to
safety in Israel.
The Nov. 8 concert is one way to help raise the nec-
essary money.
Dudu Fisher, who began his singing career as a
chazan (cantor), was the lead singer in the hit
Broadway play Les Miserables. Because of his religious
convictions, stand-ins took his place for Shabbat per-
formances. Although recently cast for the lead in
Phantom of the Opera in London, Fisher declined the
role, due to conflicts with Shabbat.
The concert, to be held at the Southfield Centre for
the Arts, will honor CCOC volunteer Shelley Nadiv,
38, of Huntington Woods. Nadiv is active with many
local Jewish organizations, including Yad Ezra, David-
Horodoker Organization, Jewish Community Center,
Jewish Community Council, Israeli Defense League
and Jewish Home and Aging Services.
Nadiv's grandmother, Bessie Kutnik, recently hon-
ored by JHAS as an "8 Over 80" mitzvah hero, was
born in Horodok, a city in Belarus (White Russia) that
is close to Chernobyl.
Shelley and husband Yair Nadiv have three children
who attend Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit.
Six years ago, on a family trip to Israel, the Nadivs vis-
ited Kfar Chabad, where the Children of Chernobyl
are settled. Shelley Nadiv says their daughter Danielle,
who was then 6, turned to her and said, "Ima
[Mommy], we have to help these kids!"
Says Nadiv: "How can any mother not feel obligat-
ed to step forward and help another mother's children?
With the Children of Chernobyl program, we have the
ability to make such a difference in these children's
lives." ❑

For information about Chabad's Children of
Chernobyl or to order concert tickets, call Phyllis
Meer, CCOCs Michigan chapter president, (248)
542-1880.

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