Pandemic Doesn’t Stop
Family Reunions
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
T hey came from Russia and the state of Georgia, New
York and Israel. From France and New Jersey they
arrived, ready to gab. And in Northeast Philadelphia,
Jeanne Kolodner got to see all 100 or so of their faces: the
extended Aronow/Patkin family, spread across the world,
together again for a reunion.

This time, though, it was via Zoom.

Kolodner’s family typically hosts an in-person reunion
every four years, gathering near the ancestral homeland of
Camden, New Jersey, for feasts, music and commemorative
ceremonies. The 2012 reunion was able to proceed in spite of
the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy, and the 2016 iteration went
well, too.

But 2020 was deemed too risky for an in-person reunion
so, rather than wait for a safe time to meet in person again,
the family decided to create a Zoom reunion, complete with
breakout rooms for specific ages and interests, a slideshow
memorializing lost family members, two sign language inter-
preters and a party DJ to keep things moving.

It was hard to replicate the feeling of an in-person reunion,
and to have a conversation with just one person was impos-
sible. But for Kolodner, the chance to hold some version of the
reunion was well worth the headaches.

Cheryl Friedenberg (highlighted in yellow) has held Zoom calls with her mother (top left) and
siblings (top middle, top right and middle right) five nights per week since the pandemic began.

Photo by Cheryl Friedenberg
Name: Chain Mar
Width: 9.25 in
Depth: 5.5 in
Color: Black plus one
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10 MARCH 25, 2021
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