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2020inREVIEW Our most-read stories of the year By Eric Schucht / Staff Writer
As the year comes to a close, we’re taking a look back on the 10 most-read stories on washingtonjewishweek.com. Here’s what got the biggest buzz from our readers.
Lauren Burnett and Jacob Bradshaw decided to tie the knot in the midst of the pandemic. The couple had planned on an October wedding, but the coronavirus blew in and put that timeline in limbo. So the couple got a marriage license and held a civil ceremony. Bradshaw, 26, is an attorney who works primarily on behalf of plaintiffs in personal injury and civil rights cases. Burnett, 24, is a nursing resident who assists surgeons in the operating room of a Washington-area hospital. The two wed out of concern that Bradshaw could lose his job and be without health insurance. Another concern was that they wouldn’t be able to see each other if either of them were hospitalized in the change that visitor restrictions were limited to spouses only. In April, Bradshaw and Burnett said they hoped to have their wedding ceremony and party in October. However, they were preparing to postpone if coronavirus was still a threat.
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10 Jacob Bradshaw and Lauren Burnett
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4 DEAD OF COVID19 AT HEBREW HOME
In April, news broke that four residents of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville had died from COVID19. Another 37 residents there tested positive for coronavirus. The Hebrew Home is a nursing home, part of the Charles E. Smith Life Communities and has 556 beds. WJW reached out to Charles E. Smith Life Communities for more information and received an emailed response from Mitchell Schmale of Nevins & Associates, a strategic communications firm. “We have been following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and continue to work closely with local, state and federal public health agencies as we respond to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the unique threat it presents to the older adults we serve,” Schmale wrote.
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The Albert & Helen Misler Adult Day Center in Rockville.
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WHILE THE COUNTRY’S ON LOCKDOWN, THIS COUPLE IS GETTING THEIR LOVE ON LOCK
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Rabbi Alana Suskin
RABBI ALANA SUSKIN’S NEW HAT
Rabbi Alana Suskin is often seen in her late father’s pork pie hat and plaid blazer. The Rockville resident is cofounder of interfaith organization Pomegranate Initiative, senior managing editor of progressive blog Jewschool. com and co-chair of the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign. She was ordained first as a Conservative rabbi in 2003, but over the years felt more connected to Orthodox Judaism. So she enrolled in Yeshivat Maharat’s Advanced Kollel: Executive Ordination Track. The group trains and ordains Orthodox women and has received backlash from some Orthodox organizations for doing so. Suskin said she attended the program out of a love for learning.
ANNOUNCED CLOSURE OF MISLER CENTER ADULT CARE SURPRISES FAMILIES
News of the Jewish Council for the Aging closing its senior adult day center in February came as a shock to many. The Albert & Helen Misler Adult Day Center served about 35 seniors a day with activities and kosher lunches. It closed on March 20. JCA CEO David Gamse said the center lost $2,000 a day. The high cost was attributed to having to employ one staff member for every three or four persons in its care. Gamse also said JCA was required to provide highly specialized paratransit transportation service for those participants, which added to the costs. The JCA board and staff considered several options to cut costs, such as eliminating the center’s on-site entertainment and field trips, serving non-kosher food or ending the ElderBus transportation service, Gamse said. “We said no to all of those things because it isn’t in our DNA to deliver a program that is anything less than top rate,” Gamse said. “We believe that would be a disservice even greater than the closure of our beloved Misler.” washingtonjewishweek.com
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