Chabad plans to bring 16 children from the Chernobyl area to Israel on Wednesday, the 21st anniversary of the nuclear disaster. The children will receive medical care and education in Israel. Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl organization has brought more than 2,400 children to Israel from contaminated areas since 1990. According to recent studies, residents of Belarus, which received 70 percent of the nuclear fallout from the disaster, are still at risk. Among the health problems are an 88.5 percent increase in thyroid cancer among children born after the disaster. Incidents of birth defects and other disorders also have risen.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
