A chanukiah was on display at the Clement J Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center for Chanukah last month.
The Zablocki center, 5000 W. National Ave., is a teaching hospital that provided care for 56,000 veterans in 2021.
Queen worked with local Veterans Administration officials to add the menorah, which was placed in the Matousek Auditorium of the Zablocki center by Lubavitch of Wisconsin. The auditorium is used as a chapel.
This was the first time Kim Queen, post commander for the Jewish War Veterans of Wisconsin, can remember a menorah on display there. The moment was marked by singing children from Bader Hillel Academy. Veterans and staff were in the audience.
“We always see Christmas decorations. There’s a lot of Jewish veteran patients here. There’s Jewish staff here. And we feel left out,” Queen said. “So this is an act of inclusivity.”
The hospital has 113 acute care beds, 150 domiciliary beds and 113 nursing home care unit beds, according to David Walter, spokesman for the Zablocki system.
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