Bob Bloom – RIP

Robert A. Bloom, 72, died on Tuesday, November 25, 2019 at UMass Memorial Health Alliance Clinton Hospital.

He leaves his wife of 49 years, Sharon A. (Daigle) Bloom; a son, Seth A. Bloom and his partner, Patrick Hurley of Sterling; a daughter, Amy B. and her husband, Matthew Erich of Westford; three brothers, James E. Bloom and his wife, Marcia of Richmond, VA., Paul M. Bloom and his wife, Marieanne of Hudson and Richard J. Bloom and his wife, Candace of Menlo Park, CA.; and two grandchildren Amelia and Aiden.

He was born in Worcester, a son of William and Anne (Sclar) Bloom and had lived in Sterling for 42 years. He graduated Classical High School in 1965 and Quinsigamond Community College in 1971. He graduated from Fitchburg State College with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Arts, and later from Lowell State College receiving both a Masters Degree in Education and a Masters Degree in Computer Science. He first was an industrial arts teacher at Tahanto Regional High School for several years and later became a software engineer working for several computer manufacturers for many years.

During the Vietnam War, he served in the Air Force Military Police while stationed in the Philippines.

He was a member of Sterling Democratic Committee, Sterling Cable Committee and Sterling Building Committee for the Senior Center. Bob was a member and Past Master of both the Montacute and Guiding Lights Masonic Lodges now affiliated with Boylston Lodge of Masons in West Boylston. As a 32nd Degree Mason, Bob was a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Worcester, Boston Consistory and Aleppo Temple Shrine in Wilmington.

www.legacy.com

Alex Morse Critically Injured

Alex Morse, the son of Jerry and Bea Morse, was an innocent passerby when an argument between two groups occurred while walking with his girl friend, Rebecca Newbill, in Northwest Washington, DC January 1. A stray bullet hit Alex in the head. At last report, Alex is in critical condition in the hospital.

Alex’s friends are conducting a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to cover medical expenses.

News Story

https://www.nhl.com/capitals/news/caps-community-rallies-behind-lifelong-fan/c-303554342

Alan Mintz – RIP

Our classmate Alan Mintz, a professor of Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary died in May 20, 2017.

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Click here for a Newspaper Article.

The following information was taken from http://www.jta.org/2017/05/22/news-opinion/alan-mintz-hebrew-literature-scholar-and-one-time-student-activist-is-dead-at-69

The cause was a heart attack, which he suffered Saturday night after swimming at a gym near his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was 69.

As a member of the JTS faculty, which he joined in 2001, and before that at Brandeis University and the University of Maryland, Mintz focused on Hebrew literature in America, the Hebrew writer and Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and responses to the Holocaust and other historical tragedies in Hebrew literature and popular culture.

In an appreciation for the online Judaic studies forum H-Judaic, chair Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis, described Mintz as “one of the preeminent scholars of Hebrew Literature of our time.”

In 1967, as a student at Columbia College, he was a founder of Response Magazine, which called itself “A Contemporary Jewish Review.” In the Fall 1968 issue he chided the Jewish establishment, and his fellow Jewish students, for not speaking out against the war in Vietnam. He urged “good Jewish boys” like him to work within their synagogues and communal institutions and demand that they “no longer separate their personal morality and community ethics from larger political realities.”

In 1971, Mintz and Jim Sleeper co-edited an anthology of writings mostly drawn from Response called “The New Jews.” In an appreciation of the book written on its 40th anniversary, Brandeis professor Yehudah Mirsky described how Mintz and his fellow student activists “sought to give voice to a small cohort at once deeply alienated from organized Jewish life and deeply attached to Jewish history and culture.” Many of the young leaders of the movement went on to careers in Jewish academia and to lead the institutions they once derided.

Raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mintz earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and his doctorate, at Columbia University while also studying at JTS.

Mintz also was a co-founder of the New York Havurah, or fellowship, one of the earliest examples in a movement of independent congregations that eschewed typical synagogue hierarchies and promoted spirituality and social activism. In 1981, he co-founded Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History with David Roskies, a professor of Jewish literature at JTS.

Mintz’s many books include “Popular Culture and the Shaping of Holocaust Memory in America” (2001), “Translating Israel: Contemporary Hebrew Literature and Its Reception in America” (2001) and “Reading Hebrew Literature” (editor, 2002).

Mintz was a recipient of multiple awards for his scholarship and was recently made a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies.

In announcing his death, JTS wrote of Mintz: “A profoundly insightful writer, he expanded our understanding and appreciation of the Hebrew language, modern Hebrew literature, and the Jewish life they illuminate. He was an exceptional teacher, an esteemed colleague, and a good friend.”

Mintz is survived by his wife, Susanna, and their daughters, Amira and Avital.

Please thank Alan Cooper and Mike Backer for notifying the webmaster, Ben Bachrach of Alan Mintz passing.

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