Alan Fredric Bloomfield, born June 2, 1934,¹ in Lexington, Kentucky, was the son of Hugo Bloomfield and Mina Cecile Hagedorn and grandson of Abraham Blumenfeld and Sophie Mansbach.

The obituary announcing his death on June 8, 2020, begins with the words: “Lexington has lost one of its greatest.”² Indeed he was! However, even the greatest among us began from small beginnings. And so, this story about Alan starts at the beginning, at the time when he was a small boy and youth taking his first steps in the public life of Lexington.

At age six, Alan was one of “the central figures at a Hadassah ‘thrift’ luncheon […] at the Ashland Avenue temple of Adath Israel…” Alan – in the photo below – was dressed in a Spanish costume in keeping with the theme of the event.

Alan’s social engagement began at an early age. Just a few months after his luncheon appearance, he was one of eleven children aged six to 12 that organized a fund-raising party. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported: “The kids planned and carried out the whole thing themselves. They charged two cents admission for adults, and one cent each for children.” The proceeds of $10.21 were turned over to the Red Cross.³

When the Cassidy Grade School had a paper drive in 1945, Alan was photographed with some of his classmates.

Alan was confirmed by Rabbi Sidney Ballon at Adath Israel Temple on Erev Shavuot in 1949 along with Erie Levy and Myra Michaels. As part of the ceremony, they were presented with certificates and a Bible. A reception followed in the Temple garden.⁴ “Confirmation in Reform Judaism is a modern coming-of-age ritual (usually at age 15 – 17) in which teens publicly affirm their commitment to Judaism, typically on or near Shavuot.” The practice originated in early 19^th century Germany, “largely attributed to Israel Jacobson, who viewed the traditional bar mitzvah as outdated and too early for meaningful commitment. It is linked to Shavuot, the festival celebrating the giving of the Torah, reinforcing the idea of receiving and accepting Jewish teachings.”⁵

In the fall of 1949 Alan joined the Pipers of Pan, a high-school service and social club that was active at Lexington high school from the 1920s to the mid 1960s.⁶ As a youth Alan was also active in the AZA,⁷ and was elected the local chapter’s vice president in 1950.⁸ At a convention of two Kentucky-Tennessee Jewish groups in 1951 he took part in a panel discussion considering “Living Dividends Through National Federation of Temple Youth.”⁹ When members of the senior high school class elected their best all-around boy, Alan was one of the runners up.¹⁰ After graduation he attended the University of Kentucky. At age 20, Alan was working first as a clerk and then as a salesman at Ben Snyder’s store in Lexington.¹¹ Two years later the Lexington City Directory indicates that he had become the assistant manager of his parents’ store.

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1. Kentucky, Birth Index, 1911-1999, in: Ancestry.com. ↩︎
2. https://www.milwardfuneral.com/obituaries/Alan-Fredric-Bloomfield?obId=28269317. ↩︎
3. The Lexington Hearld-Leader, July 2, 1940, page 1. ↩︎
4. The Lexington Herald-Leader, June 3, 1949, page 13. ↩︎
5. Reformjudaism.org. ↩︎
6. The Lexington Herald-Leader, September 9, 1949, page.11. ↩︎
7. Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA), founded in 1924, is the boys’ fraternal division of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, emphasizing Jewish identity, leadership, service, and brotherhood. ↩︎
8. The Lexington Herald, May 28, 1950, page 6. ↩︎
9. The Lexington Herald, November 11, 1851, page. 10. ↩︎
10. The Lexington Herald, May 25, 1952, page 27. ↩︎
11. Lexington City Directory, 1954 and 1955. ↩︎