Last week I took a group of older couples from Gothenburg, Sweden, on a 2-hour tour of Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
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Naturally I wanted to show them sites that would be especially interesting to them, so I decided to pass by the statue and square honoring Swedish diplomat and businessman Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. There is a monument to him in Stockholm as well, so I thought that my Swedish passengers would enjoy seeing the square. As we were approaching the square, I told them that we would be seeing the statue honoring Wallenberg, the only Swede honored with a monument or square in Los Angeles. When I asked them if they knew what he had done to deserve the honor, they all nodded their heads. A few seconds later, a man commented, “But wasn’t he Jewish? Wouldn’t you expect him to do that?” I responded that Wallenberg was part Jewish by blood, not religion.
When we saw the statue, a woman immediately asked why the statue was right in front of a bank. The woman sitting next to her said “I know why!” to the general laughter of the group. I was too stunned to point out that the statue has been on that corner for 26 years, long before Chase decided to open a branch there.
More: Jewish Journal
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