Jerry Blumenthal, retired municipal councillor, dies

Jerry Blumenthal, a retired municipal councillor for north-end Halifax and a former school administrator and teacher, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 82.

Blumenthal died surrounded by family members the day after his birthday.

A community-minded person who advocated for the disabled and seniors, he supported “anyone he felt needed a voice,” an obituary posted online says.

Among other things, Blumenthal was instrumental in 2012 in getting Halifax city hall to launch a pilot project offering free rides on public transit, on Tuesdays, for senior citizens.

“Jerry was always larger than life,” the obituary says. “He was all about people.”

The death notice says Blumenthal “created a lasting legacy, whether it was in the classroom, in council chambers or later in life as he walked the streets with his Nordic poles, chatting with everyone along the way.”

He could sometimes be seen during regular “power walks” in and around the north end.

Blumenthal was also a big baseball fan, the obituary says.

During earlier years, he and his wife travelled throughout the United States and Canada, “taking in baseball games in more than a dozen Major League ballparks,” it says.

Born Jerrold Searl Blumenthal, he was the son of the late Phillip and Ida (Smith) Blumenthal. He was predeceased by his older brother, Stuart.

Survivors include Blumenthal’s wife, Nancy, daughters Sheryl and Andrea, son Darren, stepdaughter Jennifer, brother Bob, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Blumenthal earned education and science degrees from Dalhousie University. He retired as an educator in 1994 after 32 years in the field, his obituary says.

Later that year, he was elected alderman for the city’s north end in the former City of Halifax.

When Halifax Regional Municipality was formed in 1996, Blumenthal was a member of regional council until retiring in 2004.

During Blumenthal’s time on Halifax council he served as deputy mayor, for the one-year term that post allows, and was president of the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (now the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities).

He also was a member of various municipal, provincial and national boards and commissions, including the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Council of the Blind Advocacy and Awareness Chapter, the human rights commission said in a release in 2015.

One of Blumenthal’s “treasured accomplishment’s,” the death notice says, was “an award he received from (the) CNIB for being the first councillor in the Atlantic provinces to issue his newsletters and calling cards in Braille.”

He was also one of Halifax city hall’s relatively few Jewish municipal politicians over the years.

Blumenthal would always wear a yarmulke, which he kept at his desk inside the council room, when members used to stand to recite an invocation prior to each session.

The prayer was replaced with a moment of silent reflection after a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling against public prayer at town and city council meetings.

According to a notice from the Atlantic Jewish Council, a graveside service for Blumenthal is to take place Sunday. His obituary says it’s private; a celebration of his life will be planned later.

Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth