Julia Blum
The Jewish Home | JULY 7, 2022
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Song of Her Soul By Tammy mark
I
n the low-lit room, mothers and daughters gathered with anticipation, gazing at the stage as the spotlight hit just perfectly. Julia Blum would soon share her music, her story, and her words of inspiration in a performance that would resonate with women of all ages. Julia is a singer, songwriter, actress and musician who studied at Harvard and Yale. She is also a baalat teshuva who discovered her path to observant Judaism on a visit to Israel, during a short but powerful and fateful trip that rerouted her career and her life. In a recent presentation interwoven with music and song, Blum wittily tells her story with tears in her eyes at Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, New York, sharing the journey of her
idyllic childhood in Los Angeles to her present-day reemergence on the Jewish music scene. She explains how her talent and enthusiasm for performing arts were apparent at an early age and how she trained with the best in the field, at the best schools, flourishing at Ivy League schools, earning top grades, and learning and performing alongside equally talented peers and envisioning her life’s trajectory to be set.
Raised in a culturally Jewish home, Blum always felt strongly Jewish in her heart but didn’t have much knowledge about Judaism itself. She had philosophical questions like: “What does it mean to be Jewish?” and “What happens after you die?” She was determined to one day learn more. After graduating cum laude
with distinction from Yale in 1988, Blum decided to take some time to travel, making big plans to see Greece, Italy, France, and Israel. When she later wanted to cut the trip short, her parents encouraged her to get to Israel before returning home; she made it there and decided to stay a few weeks. It was a Friday at the Western Wall where Blum encountered Jeff Seidel, a kiruv facilitator known for gathering young tourists to join families for traditional Shabbos meals. He invited Blum for Friday night dinner, and she took the opportunity. It was a big group of strangers in a small apartment, and the hosts were a warm and welcoming family with lots of young children. To Blum, the experience felt like a quaint, old-world scene out of Fiddler on the Roof – that is, until she
discovered that her hostess had attended Yale, too. To her amazement, the dinner conversation centered on the very same questions about Judaism and life Blum had pondered on her own. Blum was intrigued and eager to learn more about Judaism. She was recommended to go to Neve Yerushalayim to study, and she remained there for 2½ months. Blum was awestruck by how brilliant, humble, and thoughtful her teachers were. The experience was a complete game-changer for her, vastly different than her experience at Yale or anywhere else. Blum recalls her time at Yale with favor, a time when that was the only world she knew. She focused on music composition and studied theater and film. “I loved being at Yale,” she says. “I
