Jacob Richard Aaron Hellman, an educator, dramaturg, digital creator and performer, passed away on Friday, Feb. 20, after an illness.
A Baltimore native and third-generation Holocaust survivor who lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hellman was 38.
In recent years, he taught as an adjunct professor at several universities in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, including Concordia University, St. Paul.
He also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
In 2020, Hellman earned his doctorate in interdisciplinary theatre studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation explored the image of the soldier on the Israeli stage since the nation’s independence.
Hellman also earned a master of arts degree in theater from the University of Houston and a bachelor of arts degree in theater from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In addition, Hellman taught social studies at the Madison Jewish Day School in Wisconsin and spoke publicly about his family’s experiences during the Holocaust.
“We need to remember our roots as humans,” he said in 2022 at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. “In our lifetime, the Holocaust will pass out of living memory. We need to preserve the memory and as a human society need to keep it alive, or we are doomed to repeat it.”
Hellman’s greatest love was acting on the stage, his family wrote in a memorial post on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros.
“Even though his primary interests were in dramaturgy, theatre history and reading plays, he always enjoyed performing. Two years ago, he was cast in the Minnesota Fringe Festival alongside Harry Waters Jr. in ‘Baldwin’s Last Fire’ and this last summer in ‘Tompkins Squares.’ Jacob loved the theater, travel, geocaching and reading. Please remember him when you do any of those things.”
Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi of Pikesville’s Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation described Hellman as “such a precious soul. So bright, so curious, so authentic, so loving and giving and funny. He made such an impression on me at the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship conference in Brazil last summer where I had the privilege of being among the faculties, we got to teach and learning together with Jacob,. We shared our Baltimore connection, our Minneapolis connection, and also our Madison Wisconsin connection. A great and beautiful light …”
Posted Miami-based curator, author and museum educator Luna Goldberg: “We met at the Association of Israel Studies conference years ago, and I loved reconnecting year after year. We kept in touch and I loved getting to know Jacob as a friend and fellow scholar. He contributed a piece to an edited volume we put together during the pandemic and we often spoke about our lives respectively working in the arts and Jewish life. Jacob was a light, always full of excitement and energy, and the world feels dimmer today.”
Jacob Hellman is survived by his parents, Stanley and Elissa Hellman; and his sister, Rachel Hellman.
Services were held on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 22, at Sol Levinson’s Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Road in Pikesville. Interment was at Chevra Ahavas Chesed Cemetery in Randallstown.
Contributions in his memory may be sent to Ner Tamid Synagogue, 6214 Pimlico Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21209, Chevra Ahavas Chesed Inc, P.O. Box 2085, Ellicott City, Maryland 21041, or the local theater of your choice.
For shiva information, visit sollevinson.com/memorials/Hellman-Jacob/5688879/.
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