A city park in the Edgewater neighborhood is being renamed in honor of the late Rabbi Herman Schaalman and his late wife, Lotte.
Shaalman was rabbi at the Emanuel Congregation for 30 years. He and his wife both died in 2017.
“Rabbi and Mrs. Schaalman were so extraordinary that it was important to this community that the place they found so dear, namely, Edgewater, somehow held a place within it that was reflective of who they are,” said Michelle Friedman, cantor at Emanuel Congregation. “It’s no better place in a park where someone sort of goes for solace or goes to connect with someone else, or just admires the natural world.”
Interfaith Park will be the new name of Park No. 517, a 0.65-acre park at the southwest corner of Thorndale Avenue and Sheridan Road in Edgewater and diagonal from the Emanuel Congregation.
The park allows community members and visitors to walk their dogs, relax on the benches and to walk the pathways. There is a large stone plaque dedicated to the Schaalmans stating their “commitment to interfaith relations is a model and goal for all.
“He believed in helping not only our Jewish congregation but everyone,” said Sandy Saithe, who lived a block away from the Schaalmans in Edgewater.
The Chicago Park District approved the name change July 10.