Van Nuys Publisher Funds Holiday for Cancer Patients : Israeli Teen-Agers End ‘Magic’ Trip

Phil Blazer calls it a mitzvah , in Hebrew, a good deed.

For eight cancer-stricken Israeli teen-agers, Blazer’s good deed meant 12 days of touring Southern California and a release from the daily tensions of their homeland and the strictures of medical treatment.

“The stress for a family in Israel, with the terrorism and economy, is quite bad,” said Blazer, publisher of Israel Today, a Van Nuys-based daily newspaper. Blazer paid the estimated $20,000 cost of the trip.

On Sunday, the teen-agers boarded an El Al flight for the 9,000-mile trip back to Tel Aviv, clutching bags of gifts and souvenirs as well as warm memories of their first trip to the United States.

‘I Want to Stay’

“I want to stay,” said Ifat Shai, a cherub-faced 14-year-old girl from Jerusalem who said the best thing about Southern California is the people.

Ifat, who visits a Jerusalem hospital for bone cancer treatments, said her second favorite thing is Disneyland, a preference volunteered by several others in the group.

“This is wonderful,” said Yuval Zikri, 14, of Rehovot, a city south of Tel Aviv. Yuval, who is balding from his chemotherapy treatments, said he never dreamed he would have the opportunity to come to America.

The youths, ages 14 to 17, were chosen for the trip by physicians at Beilenson Hospital near Tel Aviv, a treatment center for children with cancer.

All were deemed fit for travel; half of the teen-agers have their cancers in long-term remission, said Dr. Amalia Dvir, a pediatrician at Beilenson who, with a nurse, escorted the children.

Relief From Hardship

“It’s given them a good pause from their hard times,” Dvir said of the trip. “It’s been a magic, once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The teen-agers spent the first week of their trip at Camp Ronald McDonald in Malibu, which caters to the needs of young cancer patients. Last week, besides Disneyland, they visited Knott’s Berry Farm and went on shopping trips to the Sherman Oaks Galleria and, on Saturday, to the Valley Indoor Swap Meet in Canoga Park.

Blazer, who was involved in a campaign in March to relocate Ethiopian Jews to Israel, said the idea for the trip came from an El Al official, who offered to donate flight tickets for the doctor and nurse.

Annual Event Planned

Blazer said he intends to make the trip an annual event through donations from the Jewish community in Los Angeles.

Dvir said the visit showed that even more seriously ill children can make the trip next year.

“It’s been a big uplift for the American Jewish community here--to see the smiling faces of Israeli children,” Blazer said. “It also reminds us that those of us who have healthy children are very lucky.”