Community Mobilizes to Help Terminally Ill Boy

Harel Dabush had two dreams: He wanted to celebrate his 6th birthday. And he wanted to go to first grade.

An outpouring of generosity from strangers around the world made those dreams come true before the Israeli boy succumbed to cancer last week.

Since February, Harel had been undergoing experimental therapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a rare form of neuroblastoma diagnosed when he was a toddler.

Moved by the child’s story, donors raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund his treatment and the family’s stay in Cherry Hill.

“That was the last chance he had,” said Rabbi Menachem Kaminker, who leads the township’s Chabad Center.

For about six months, it appeared Harel was responding well to the medicine he swallowed each day. Its side effects were much milder than the chemotherapy he had taken for much of his young life.

But he used to ask people to cover their eyes when he took it, said 73-year-old Steve Frankel, who shared his big Cherry Hill house with Harel’s parents and two younger siblings.

The medicine must have tasted bad, Frankel guessed.

“The little boy was like any other little boy. He was a little frail. When he had a good friend his age, they ran around.”

From the first day of the family’s arrival, Cherry Hill’s Jewish community mobilized to help, according to Kaminker. Summer camp was secured. Homes were opened. Fundraisers were held.

Once, a man arrived on a flight from Los Angeles to find out what the family might need during their stay. He packed a van twice with items he bought with his credit card.

“It was amazing to me how people stepped up to help them,” Frankel recalled.

“I never saw anything like that. The number of people that befriended and cared about them — it’s beautiful to see.”

Indeed, the months spent in South Jersey were the best of Harel’s life, his father told Kaminker last week. In August, a lavish birthday party was thrown, packed with well-wishers who donated money toward his treatment.

In September, Harel attended his first day of grade one at Politz Day School, where the tuition was immediately waived.

“He played with the kids and sat in the classroom. He was thrilled,” said the school’s head, Rabbi Avraham Glustein. The school’s photographer documented the day.

But Harel’s first day at school would also be his last.

Soon after, doctors discovered his cancer had returned and was worse than before. The family was advised to return to Israel, so their son could die in his home.

They left on the second day of Sukkot.

“People were devastated,” Kaminker noted. “But the Jewish saying is, even in the worst-case scenario, we still have to keep praying.”

The Politz Day School will hold a service Monday for Harel and children will read their tributes to him. The school will dedicate the first Friday of each month to Harel, and will read an extra Torah passage in his memory.

The Israeli Chabad Center also plans a way to remember the boy, perhaps through expanded educational programs. The soul is eternal, explained Kaminker, so the community will continue to embrace Harel — even now.

“It is definitely a sad end to the physical connection,” the rabbi said. “But it’s not the end to the relationship.”