Mildred Thufvesson……………………………..… 36

Mildred Thufvesson

she/her

“When I grew up in Sweden, my Jewish identity wasn’t something that I felt should really be talked about, because it's not very common to

be Jewish in Sweden. I was actually baptized in the Christian religion, but I never felt connected to it nor did I feel religious or anything. I didn't even realize that I had my Jewish heritage until I was older, like 12 or 13, when I started reading all of these books about my family. Only then, did I realize how my Jewish ancestors found their way to Sweden because of anti-semitism.

As I started learning about the Holocaust, I started to feel an obligation to at least try and embrace my heritage, but it wasn’t until I moved to America that I realized how to. At Tulane, I started to learn more about Judaism, and a lot of my friends were Jewish, so I asked them a lot of questions that I wasn't able to ask before. My experience in America and

at Tulane has shown me that my Jewish identity can coincide with all of my other identities, and that I can choose how I want to be in the community.

I think that my newfound curiosity about my Jewish identity also makes my grandma really happy. I just told her about this interview and she got really excited and bought me this book about Judaism in Sweden and she sent me a family tree because we came [to Sweden] amongst the earliest Jewish immigrants.”