JOELLE ADLERBLUM

AMHERST, Joelle Adlerblum, of Amherst, died August 25, 2013, at the age of 78, at Cooley Dickinson Hospital following hip surgery. She was born in New York City and spent her youth living with her parents, Cullen and Evelyn Adlerblum, in Riverdale, New York.

Joelle received her education from many schools, including Smith College, Washington Square College, Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work included early childhood education and research at New York University and Brooklyn College. She lived in the Boston area in the 1980s and explored much of the American Southwest, Mexico and Central America, especially Guatemala. She was fluent in Spanish.

Although fiercely independent, she is remembered by many friends and acquaintances who had “deep regard” for her as a musician, painter, a lover of nature and the outdoors, a courageous seeker and religious sojourner who passionately applied herself to the things in life that were important to her. She was a highly spirited woman with a lively mind and ready sense of humor.

At various times Joelle was active in the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst and the Mount Toby Friends Meeting, and she annually contributed to the Friends’ Thanksgiving Dinner gathering. She had a deep meditative practice as a devoted practitioner of the Buddhist tradition, spending many hours in silent retreats over the past decades at the Insight Meditation Society, in Barre, Massachusetts. She was active in the peace movement and was particularly pained and passionate about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She was especially attracted to the writing of Uri Avnery, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement.

A talented musician, Joelle loved many kinds of music, especially folk music from the left underground; she wrote many songs including her wonderful “Chocoholic Round”; she played guitar and banjo, sang, and was active in the Peoples’ Music Network, the FSSGB and the Raging Grannies.

A memorial gathering will be held at the Woodbury Room in the Jones Library, in Amherst, on Wednesday, September 25, at 6:00. Gifts in her memory may be made to the Jones Library, Inc. and to the Insight Meditation Society, and in each case noted as for the Joelle Adlerblum memorial. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.