Obituary of Jacquelyn Volk Blum

Eulogy for Jackie

52 years ago Jackie and I met at Northwestern University Medical school where she was a PhD student in clinical psychology and I was a 3rd year medical student.  Yes, she was very attractive, but she and I had a “meeting of the minds.”  We shared many important values and we even had the same birthday. (Talk about beshert (Yiddish word for destiny!)  We could talk about anything intelligently.  We met on the way to a meeting of Hillel on the Evanston campus with a common friend about a group in Israel protesting discrimination against non-European Jews.  Little did I know that she would become the “Rock of my life.”  Jackie graduated and got her license to practice Clinical Psychology helping many people including her patients, friends and family members over the years.

 Family background we didn’t share.  She grew up in Scarsdale, the daughter of a successful dress manufacturer, whose family belonged to Fenway golf club. I was the eldest son of Holocaust survivors from a suburb of Pittsburgh.   Despite her upbringing, she had enormous empathy for those less fortunate.  She had friends and strong relationships with people of diverse racial, religious and economic backgrounds which she maintained throughout her life. 

Jackie immersed herself in religion.  Although raised in a largely secular Jewish family. She studied Talmud in college and delved deeply into philosophy and religious studies, She bonded with a Rabbi who taught at Trinity College where she was a member of the first class to accept women. It didn’t hurt that he was handsome and charismatic!  Rabbi Kessler officiated at our wedding ceremony.  Jackie kept in touch with Rabbi Kessler throughout his life.  As he aged and his wife’s health declined, she ordered food for Passover Seder for him and his family.

Jackie attended Chevra Torah at Larchmont Temple while she still could.  She attended services online.  Our children attended Eisner and Crane Lake Camps affiliated with the URJ and the religious school at Larchmont Temple where they were all had Bar or Bat Mitzvahs and confirmation and where they all bonded with Rabbi Sirkman.  Jackie prepared for and celebrated her own Bat Mitzvah on the same day as our daughter, Soo Ji’s, baby naming.

Her interest in human rights caused her to be appointed as Chairwoman of the New Rochelle Human Right Commission in which capacity she served ably for a decade. She was proud of her mayoral proclamation on her retirement from this position.

We adopted four children of diverse backgrounds. Jason, Jonathan, Soo Ji and Daniel. Conscious of raising a Korean daughter and an African American son in a Caucasian Jewish family we chose to live in a town, New Rochelle, with a diverse population and where tolerance for minorities was the norm.  Jackie and I enrolled our son, Daniel, in an African culture school at St Catherine’s AME Church. Jackie involved herself in the school heart and soul becoming vice-president.  She knew the African American national anthem by heart and sang it proudly.

Soo Ji also attended Korean school, where Jackie learned to sing Happy Birthday in Korean and learned some Korean greetings.

 Jackie was always “there” for her children, family and friends.  She provided for all their needs and was very involved with their schooling and social lives.   

Jackie had accumulating disabilities over the last 30 years due to a metastatic carcinoid tumor, severe spinal stenosis, renovascular hypertension, stroke and lymphedema.  She overcame a computer phobia to develop a website called Zusia which provided information from the medical literature concerning medical illness and disability.  She had a community forum associated with this website through which she stayed in contact with a literally worldwide readership.  This is how she turned lemons into lemonade. She hired students from Iona University to assist her.  In turn, she became their Jewish Mama, a title of which she was very proud.

Jackie lived her life according to the passage from Proverbs Chapter 31 verses 10 - 31 known as “A
Woman of Valor.”  Its opening lines are, “How precious is a capable woman. Her worth is beyond that of priceless jewels. She has the confidence and heart of her husband and he lacks no benefit nor gain.

It’s closing lines are, “She speaks words of wisdom. Mercy and compassion are her virtue.  She manages the affairs of her household and does not eat of the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up to bless her. Her husband praises her saying, “Many daughters of Israel have done valorously, but you outshine them all. Grace is deceitful and beauty is illusory, but a woman in awe of the Lord, she is to be praised.  Honor her for the fruit of her hands and let her deeds praise her to the gates.

A chapter of my life that was the foundation of my serenity and the focus of my motivation has come to a close. My task is to find my way forward without the love of my life.

Dr. David Blum

A funeral Service will be held on Monday September 23, 2024, at 1:00PM at

Larchmont Temple 75 Larchmont Ave. Larchmont New York 10538

Interment will follow the funeral service at Mt. Eden Cemetery

20 Commers Street Hawthorne, NY 10532