Rättfärdig bland folken
2019-Feb-07, Thursday 09:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Last weekend was the first Hygge Fest in Andersonville, and while I didn't participate in most of its programming, I did take the opportunity to go eat gelato as part of Ice Cream For Breakfast Day and then go to the Swedish American Museum, which I've never been to despite seven-and-a-half years in the neighborhood.
There was a permanent exhibit about Swedish immigration, with a lot of dioramas of families arriving at Ellis Island and setting up homes and stores in Chicago, and a lot of relics donated by various Chicago Swedish families. There was a temporary exhibit downstairs of textile art and paintings, mostly of the artists' children or of flowers. And off in a side hallway, there was an exhibit about Raoul Wallenberg, Righteous Among the Nations. I had never heard of him before, so I spent a while reading about him and then got in a conversation with the woman volunteering at the front desk. When I mentioned Wallenberg and said that I was Jewish, she said that she went to a Torah study class sometimes, which turned out to be at Emmanuel Congregation, the synagogue I (very) occasionally go to. We talked about Rabbi Schaalman ZT"L, about how he didn't believe in G-d and about how a book had been written about him (A Brand Plucked from the Fire: The Life of Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman), and after maybe twenty minutes of chatting I said my goodbyes because I had shopping to do. Including in the museum giftshop, where I got some marzipan for 50% off.
A few years ago I would have resented having my time taken up this way, but while she kept apologizing for taking up my time, I enjoyed the conversation a lot! I did not come back to the museum the next day for carrot cake 🍰, but it was mostly because I had a lot of other things I wanted to do. And cheesecake is better than carrot cake any day.
There was a permanent exhibit about Swedish immigration, with a lot of dioramas of families arriving at Ellis Island and setting up homes and stores in Chicago, and a lot of relics donated by various Chicago Swedish families. There was a temporary exhibit downstairs of textile art and paintings, mostly of the artists' children or of flowers. And off in a side hallway, there was an exhibit about Raoul Wallenberg, Righteous Among the Nations. I had never heard of him before, so I spent a while reading about him and then got in a conversation with the woman volunteering at the front desk. When I mentioned Wallenberg and said that I was Jewish, she said that she went to a Torah study class sometimes, which turned out to be at Emmanuel Congregation, the synagogue I (very) occasionally go to. We talked about Rabbi Schaalman ZT"L, about how he didn't believe in G-d and about how a book had been written about him (A Brand Plucked from the Fire: The Life of Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman), and after maybe twenty minutes of chatting I said my goodbyes because I had shopping to do. Including in the museum giftshop, where I got some marzipan for 50% off.
A few years ago I would have resented having my time taken up this way, but while she kept apologizing for taking up my time, I enjoyed the conversation a lot! I did not come back to the museum the next day for carrot cake 🍰, but it was mostly because I had a lot of other things I wanted to do. And cheesecake is better than carrot cake any day.
