Born Chester, November 16, 1925. Died London, January 13, 2009, aged 83.
April 7, 2009 10:17Active in the Guild of Jewish Journalists and as a lay conductor of religious services, Philip Bloom first studied dentistry.
The son of an insurance agent, he was seven when his mother died, leaving him and a 14-year-old brother. He was always affected by his early loss.
From Manchester Grammar School, he went to dental school at Manchester University. But the outbreak of the Second World War changed his career.
After army service in the UK, he decided on hachsharah, agricultural training for kibbutz life. He moved to the David Eder Farm in Sussex, which prepared idealistic Jewish youngsters for farm work and communal life on the Habonim kibbutz, Kfar Nanassi.
In 1949 he married Gay Aronowitz, whom he met at the farm. The couple moved to Israel, where Phil drove a tractor and their first child was born.
But they returned to England three and a half years later. Taking a garage job near his mother-in-law’s home in Northampton, Phil went to evening classes and worked as a draughtsman in Smith’s Industries in Birmingham.
He finally settled in London as a journalist on technical magazines. This brought him to the Guild of Jewish Journalists, whose magazine he edited, and Mill Hill Synagogue, where he was the magazine’s production editor.
Picking up on his Hebrew education from cheder days, and using his fine baritone voice, he took overflow services and services at old-age homes.
He is survived by his wife, three daughters and four grandchildren.