American Actor Focuses on Children During Weeklong Tour of Israel

At many of his stops in Israel this week, Jon Voight attracted a sea of reporters and photographers. But for the Academy Award winner, his goodwill tour throughout the country was not about him: He came for the children.

A guest of Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl, Chabad’s Terror Victims Project and the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel, Voight – a mega-donor of Chabad-Lubavitch programs on America’s West Coast – shuttled between schools in the central village of Kfar Chabad, the streets of the Negev Desert town of Sderot and a barbeque for terror victims in Jerusalem.

“One family told me they couldn’t sleep all night, they were so touched by his compassion,” said Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of the terror victims project, which arranged for Voight to host 50 children and their families at a Hopoel Yerusalem soccer match at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium. “During the game, he was giving high-fives and cheering for the home-team with the children.”

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The following day, Kutner and the actor, clad in a blue football jacket from one of his movies, joined some 100 victims of terror for the barbeque at a popular steak restaurant. Voight, teary-eyed, sat down with each family.

Afterward, he joined the children in writing notes to G-d and attaching them to helium balloons. One girl, whose father, Baruch Hondiashvili, was killed in the Jan. 29, 2004 suicide bombing of Bus No. 19 in Jerusalem, wrote a letter that said: “Creator of the world, please bring peace to the world.”

“Think how many Jewish parents, Jewish families have suffered like that for 3,000 years,” an emotional Voight, who is not Jewish, told a film crew from Israel’s Channel 10. “And there’s still the Jewish people.”

Children of Chernobyl

Rabbi Menachem Kutner, right, of Chabad’s Terror Victims Project accompanies American actor Jon Voight on a visit with Jerusalem’s Hondiashvili family. The little girl, whose father Baruch Hondiashvili was killed in the Jan. 29, 2004 suicide bombing of Jerusalem’s Bus No. 19, holds a letter to G-d that says: “Creator of the world, please bring peace to the world.” (Photo: Meir Dahan)

But while visiting with victims of terror took up a large chunk of Voight’s visit to Israel, it was the Children of Chernobyl project that drew most of his attention.

On Monday, he went to the airport to greet the project’s 80th rescue flight of children from irradiated areas in Eastern Europe. Voight, who has supported Children of Chernobyl for 14 years, boarded the plane upon its arrival, and then danced with its 36 passengers, aged 6-14.

The actor’s “relationship with the Chernobyl issue began when he played Dr. Robert Gale in the movie ‘Chernobyl: The Final Warning,’ ” which explored the events surrounding the April 26, 1986, nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine, explained Rabbi Yossie Raichik, director of Children of Chernobyl. “Because of his research into the story, he became very in tune with the problems happening in the region.”

He found out about the Chabad organization through friend Hank Paul, a movie producer.

According to Raichik, more than 80 percent of children born around Chernobyl are born with sicknesses of varying degrees.

“In addition, the children are exposed to radiation through food and water,” added the rabbi.

Since 1989, the organization has brought 2,531 children and 1,757 parents to live in Israel. It provides medical treatment, as well as special homes and assistance in adjusting to life in the Middle East.

Voight spent Tuesday in Sderot as a show of solidarity with residents who live under the specter of almost-constant rocket attacks from Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Accompanied by Kutner, he visited Mayor Eli Moyal and handed out presents to the city’s children.

“All day, he consoled and strengthened them,” said Kutner. “His love for the Jews and Israel, and especially for victims of terror, is something that I have hardly seen in any other person.”

“When I see these children,” Voight told The Associated Press, “from my perspective, they are children from a war zone. [They] are on the front line.”

After meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres Thursday morning, Voight again met with Chernobyl children, this time at schools in Kfar Chabad.

Said Raichik: “The children are very excited about all the attention.”