Lois Blum Feinblatt Remembered as a Trailblazing Therapist and Committed Philanthropist and Activist

April 18, 2022 JMORE Staff

Along with her late husband Irving Blum, Lois Blum Feinblatt was inducted into the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame in 2015. (Photo courtesy of Sol Levinson & Bros.)

A pioneering therapist in the field of sexual behaviors, North Baltimore resident Lois Blum Feinblatt died last Friday, Apr. 15. She was 100.

Born to Baltimore’s prominent Hoffberger family, the twice-married-and-widowed Feinblatt was considered a trailblazer in her field, as well as a noted philanthropist and community volunteer. Her late older brother, Jerold Charles “Jerry” Hoffberger, was the former owner of the Baltimore Orioles and president of the National Brewing Co.

The daughter of attorney Samuel and Gertrude Hoffberger, and granddaughter of local merchant Charles Hoffberger, Feinblatt grew up in the Forest Park neighborhood and married Irving Blum in 1941 while still a student at Hood College in Frederick. She eventually graduated from Goucher College.

After the birth of her three children, Feinblatt worked for nine years for the Baltimore City Department of Welfare, interviewing prospective parents for adoption.

In 1966, she was among eight women selected for a new Johns Hopkins University program to train stay-at-home mothers to serve as mental health counselors. Feinblatt eventually joined the newly formed staff of Hopkins’ Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit, where she worked for more than three decades.

“It was a wonderful job from the very beginning,” Feinblatt told Baltimore magazine in 2019. “People had all kinds of sexual problems. Some people were very shy about sex, or some people had their own ideas and their wife or husband didn’t think they could go along with that. Everybody’s needs and wants are so different.”

After the 1973 passing of Irving Blum — a successful realtor and community philanthropist who served as the first president of the Associated Jewish Charities and Welfare fund of Baltimore — she married Eugene M. Feinblatt, a prominent attorney. They were married for 15 years until his death in 1998.

“I was lucky,” Lois Feinblatt told Baltimore magazine. “I had two fabulous husbands, and such really wonderful men and interesting men. Both were important in the community, and ethical, and brilliant minds.”

A longtime supporter of progressive causes, Feinblatt marched for the desegregation of Northwest Baltimore’s Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in 1963. She was also the first woman to serve on the board at Sheppard Pratt Hospital.

In addition, she created scholarships for the Maryland Institute College of Art and helped found the group Court Appointed Special Advocates of Baltimore, which provides advocacy and resources for child victims of abuse and neglect.

In 2015, Feinblatt was inducted into the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame, along with Irving Blum, the late Rabbi Mark G. Loeb and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson. Three years later, she was honored by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore at its 20th anniversary celebration for her philanthropy and service to the general community.

In recognition of Feinblatt’s 100th birthday, OSI-Baltimore and the Lois and Irving Blum Foundation created the Lois Blum Feinblatt Community Mental Health Fellowship as part of OSI-Baltimore’s Community Fellowships Program.

“Lois’s life is a testament to her belief that individuals, families and our community are at our best when we are deeply connected with one another,” stated OSI-Baltimore.

On the memorial page of Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home, Baltimore resident Mary Jane Blaustein wrote, “Lois was my oldest and dearest friend. We shared some of life’s most important times in our long relationship. She embodied the word friend. She was loving and loyal, she was generous and thoughtful. Lois was always accessible and authentic. I am a better person for having known her.”

Feinblatt is is survived by her children and their partners, Lawrence Blum and Judith Smith, Jeffrey Blum and Ellen Cassedy and Carolyn (Patty) Blum and Harry Chotiner; her stepchildren and their partners, Eric Feinblatt and Caroline Baillie, and John Feinblatt and Jonathan Mintz, and Margaret (Peg) Cohen, and Ron Cohen; her grandchildren and their partners, Benjamin Blum-Smith and Diane Henry, Sarah Blum-Smith and Andrew Hannon, Laura Blum-Smith and Edward Underhill, Alicia Blum-Ross and Paul (Shez) Sherreard, Isaac Chotiner and Ridhi Tariyal, Natalie Blum-Ross and Eric Owens, Timothy and Hannah Cassedy, Margaret and Kamar Samuels, Jeremie Feinblatt and Helga Hitko, Eve Feinblatt and Samuel Denantes, Micah Feinblatt, Maeve Feinblatt and Georgia Feinblatt; and her great-grandchildren, Abe, Penny, Noah, Frankie, Leila, Theo, Lucy, Gayatri and Aran.

A funeral service for Feinblatt was held on Tuesday, Apr. 19, at Beth Am Synagogue in Reservoir Hill. Interment was at Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery in Reisterstown.

Contributions in her memory may be sent to Central Scholarship, 6 Park Center Court, Suite 211, Owings Mills, Maryland 21117 or CollegeBound Foundation, 2601 N. Howard Street, Suite 210, Baltimore, Maryland 21218.