Obituary: Eva Mandl Blum

Eva Mandl Blum, beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, died peacefully on Feb. 14, 2024, in her room at The William Breman Jewish Home in Atlanta, Ga., where she lived since moving from Champaign, Ill., her hometown of more than 65 years.

Eva was born on July 9, 1938, in what was then Fiume, Italy, as Nazi Germany was beginning its conquest of the European continent and war against the Jews. Her parents, Elizabeth and Martin Mandl, fearful of the rapid rise of antisemitism in their home city of Budapest, Hungary, found temporary safety in Fiume for the birth of their daughter. Soon after Eva was born, they returned to Budapest, where she lived until 1941.

Just before her first birthday, her father, Martin, left Eva, her mother, Elizabeth, and her sister, Georgine, to sail to the United States to secure employment and visas for his family to immigrate to America at a time when entering the country was virtually impossible. Due to his essential work as a metallurgist, recycling tin for the country’s armament production, he was finally able to procure visas for his wife and daughters to join him in America in 1941.

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Eva first lived with her family in Baltimore, Md., until they moved to Chicago and, eventually, Aurora, Ill. After graduation from high school in 1956, Eva left home to attend the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., from which she graduated with a bachelor of arts in education in 1960. While in school she met her future husband, Edward I Blum. They married in Chicago on April 16, 1961, and settled in Champaign, where Edward owned Blum’s Clothing Store, and where they raised three children, Henry, Nancy and Ted. After her youngest child began elementary school, Eva returned to the University of Illinois to obtain a master’s degree in social work.

She was an active and beloved counselor for hundreds of people in her long career. Embodying the teachings of her mentor and professor, Rudolf Dreikurs, she devoted her life to helping family, friends and clients learn to take personal responsibility for their life choices and, thereby, live safe, secure, connected, and meaningful lives for themselves and their families. Her wisdom and love will live on with her family, friends and all the people who benefited from her wise counsel.

Eva is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Henry and Vivian Blum; her daughter and daughter-in-law, Nancy Blum and Jenny Halliday; her son and daughter-in-law, Ted and Leah Blum; her grandchildren: Sali and her husband Aharon Cherniak, Anna and her husband Rotem Magal, Joshua and his wife Michelle, Abigail and Evan Blum; her great-grandchildren, Ronen and Leora Cherniak; her sisters Georgine and her husband Ralph Levin, and Susan Towbin; and her nieces and nephews. Eva Mandl Blum will be sorely missed and her memory will be carried on and perpetuated by her family and all who knew her. An online guestbook is available at jewishfuneralcare.com.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to either of the schools her grandchildren attended: The Epstein School, 335 Colewood Way NW, Sandy Springs, GA,  www.epsteinatlanta.org, or the Robert M. Beren Academy, 11333 Cliffwood Dr., Houston, TX, www.berenacademy.org. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.