Friday Jeff & I picked Mallory up when she got out of class at 11:00 & headed to Sumter. Mal & I had been planning this visit for some weeks, and of course Jeff wanted to go and see her, too. Our goal was the Temple Sinai Jewish History Center, where we wanted to see the temporary exhibit about the history of the Torah that they have there at the synagogue. When we arrived right next to the parking lot was a beautiful little park that had been erected in memory of the victims of the holocaust.
Alas the lady working there told us the museum was closed for the day due to some sort of issue with the heating system. When she told us that, I asked if it would be possible to even see the Torah exhibit, because it is supposed to be dismantled the end of the month, and as it turned out, it was in a different part of the building than the rest of the museum, so we were able to see it. One of the members of the congregation had spent some years researching the history of one of their Torahs, and the story of what he found was so interesting. They knew that it had been created in 1815 in Czechoslovakia to celebrate the birth of a family’s son, because that was what was embroidered on the band that was around it. Where all it had been since then was so interesting, especially the story of the Torahs during the Nazi regime. This was one of the plaques.
Because we couldn’t tour the museum we had time to stop by Swan Lake there in the town of Sumter. It is a huge park with a couple of enormous ponds, and dozens of different swans of I think ten different varieties. They were beautiful. That park is also an Iris Garden, so we want to go back when the flowers are all blooming. I know it must be absolutely gorgeous.
