Metro

Chernobyl Concert

2005 SAAB 9-2X LJNEAR SEDAN

Local musical benefit to help airlift children
from area of radiation.

SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News

C

hernobyl. Like Hiroshima, the
very word evokes the horror of
nuclear disaster. On April 26,
1986, the world witnessed the explo-
sion of the nuclear reactor in
Chernobyl in the former USSR (now
Ukraine), the worst nuclear accident
in history.
Unlike other natural disasters, the
effects of nuclear radiation do not go
away or dissipate. In fact, the radia-
tion remains and accumulates over
time. Aside from direct exposure to
nuclear fallout, every bite of produce
grown in the contaminated ground,
every glass of milk from cows that feed
on contaminated grass, every sip of .
water from contaminated rivers corn-
pounds the harmful effects of the dis-
aster.
Scientists believe there is no "safe
dose" of radia-
tion. Studies
have shown that
radiation effects
peak only 17 or
more years after
exposure. It has
now been 18
years since the
explosion.
Chabad's
Fried
Children of
Chernobyl (CCOC) is a humanitari-
an medical relief project whose goal
is to evacuate Jewish children from
the affected region, relocate them in
Israel and help them heal. The local
chapter will host a benefit concert in
Southfield on Oct. 3 under the leader-
ship of CCOC-Michigan Region co-
chairs Rae Sharfman of West
Bloomfield and Phyllis Meer of Oak
Park.
According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), the rate of thy-
roid cancer in the Chernobyl region
now is more than 200 times the world
norm (and 22,000 times the Israeli
average). WHO predicts 50,000 new
cases there in the coming years. The
rate of thyroid disease in children
from Belarus (the former Soviet
republic just north of Chernobyl) is
29.4 percent — nearly one in three.
Radiation also damages bone marrow,

24 Mo. Lease

affecting blood production and the
immune system. This raises suscepti-
bility to serious infectious diseases,
against which the former Soviet
republics offer no immunization pro-
grams.
Children are the most at fisk
because their rapidly growing bodies
are more susceptible to the dangerous
effects of radiation. The longer chil-
dren remain in the contaminated
areas, the more sick they become.
Unfortunately, Chernobyl is part of
the Pale of Settlement, the region
including Belarus where the Jewish
population was concentrated in the
late 1700s. To this day, it is a region
with many Jews.

2004 SAAB 9-3 ARC SEDAN

24 Mo. Lease

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Hope-Filled Flights

In 1990, the Chabad-Lubavitch
organization formed Chabad's
Children of Chernobyl to airlift chil-
dren to Israel. The children initially
live in Kfar Chabad ("Chabad Village"
outside Tel Aviv). There they receive
housing, wholesome
diets and vitamin
supplements, cloth-
ing, education and
medical treatment
as well as psycho-
logical counseling,
summer camp and
tutoring.
Although only
children are evacu-
Klein
ated by CCOC,
more than 90 percent
of the parents ultimately join their
children in Israel, most within a cou-
ple of years.
To date, 68 flights have been char-
tered by CCOC, bringing 2,300
Jewish children to Israel. Once the
children arrive, the fresh air, fresh food
and excellent medical care strengthen
their immune systems; their prognosis
improves greatly. The children stay an
average of six months to two years in
Kfar Chabad and are monitored med-
ically thereafter. They thrive in their
new environment. Over the years
since CCOC began, the children have
grown to celebrate Chabad-sponsored
bar and bat mitzvahs and weddings,
even having children of their own.
CHERNOBYL on page 30

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