Retirement, Relocation and Widowhood 1985

Barbara Blum was born and lived in London. She studied dentistry at University College Hospital and was in private practice and then worked at the hospital. In 1980 she was invited by the dean to join his team to help set up the Dental School in Hong Kong where she lived for five years.

Barbara had spent three years in Israel with her husband and four sons in the 1970s and she and her husband had decided to settle in Israel at the end of her time in Hong Kong.

1985 was a year of great change for Barbara – her retirement and her relocation to Jerusalem had been planned but she had little time to enjoy it with her husband – he died very suddenly when they were on holiday in London.

Returning alone to her new home in Beit Hakerem was very difficult – what was she to do with her life, how to fill in her days? Luckily one of her neighbors was Rose Fisch, head of volunteers at the Israel museum, and so Barbara found herself working in the book shop at the museum. She also volunteered as the dentist at Beit Frankfurt, a day center for the elderly. Both these volunteer jobs lasted the 15 years that she lived in Jerusalem and through them she met many people and made many very good friends.

Hong Kong was way ahead of Israel in its use of modern technology and while there Barbara had brought a CD player and many disks – at that time, over 20 years ago, the CDs industry was in its infancy here in Israel. Amongst her friends it was suggested that she should select some disks from her collection and they would listen to them together. This led to regular music supper evenings and the beginning of the Barbara Blum musical presentation.

By the time of the new millennium Barbara’s four sons were all living in Israel and she decided to move to be nearer to them and so she came to live in Herzliya. It was at a meeting in the home of Rika Meyerowitz where a new local Esra committee was being formed that Barbara volunteered to do a musical evening for the group. It was offered as a one-off event with the hope that other people would then make similar offers. But that was not to be. Her first talk about Felix Mendelssohn in October 2000 was such a success that it led to a series of musical evenings devised by Barbara and carried out by her in her own home – with all donations going towards Esra projects.

With newer technology and updated equipment, the music for the lectures is now pre-recorded onto one disc from other discs or downloaded directly from the computer. Barbara makes her own notes to go with each talk and each talk is presented from a different angle. We learn about the background of the composer or artist, about his family and friends and how he/she rose to fame. The historical background is also included – and how a particular work was inspired because of personal events and such-like interesting information. The lectures are not technical discussions on the format of symphonies or why the tempo of the music changes – they are informative, light, insights into the subject of the lecture – his life, his loves, his friends, his enemies.

The talks have covered many subjects including Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’, Dvorak’s ‘Music from the New World’, Shostakovich’s battle with the Communist restrictions on his compositions and how he was influenced by the destruction caused by war, Brahms and his famous cradle song – who did he write it for? One highly entertaining evening was devoted to Sophie Tucker and another to Offenbach.

A fascinating Victorian evening told how in the 19^th century all the family would join in to create their own musical evening. Others have taken us to the courts of Catherine the Great, the Sun King, Esterhazy, to the bull ring in Seville to hear ‘Carmen’, to Paris to listen to Chopin, to Italy to enjoy Verdi and Puccini and so on.

These evenings still continue in Barbara’s home but she now travels to other locations to present her music for charity. In addition to Esra she has given evenings for Wizo, Hadassah and Naa’mat groups, bowling clubs and has also been invited to various synagogues. She has traveled to Caesarea, Jerusalem, Modiin, Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Netanya as well as other local communities – all on a volunteer basis. All the money raised is for the charities that have heard about her and now enjoy her unique presentations of musicians and music.

Long may it continue – thank you Barbara from Barbara for your inspired insight into music.