"As the youngest of five children," wrote Ruth Rosenblum's parents, "she was dearly loved by her family and friends. When she was 10 years old, she had a severe, debilitating illness, from which she felt she learned much, and from which she developed qualities which served her well as an adult: patience, empathy, caring, and love for others.”
After Ruth's death in 1986, the Ruth Rosenblum fund was established at The Pittsburgh Foundation in her honor.
During her lifetime, Ruth was concerned about many issues – the environment, women's issues and anti-Semitism – which led her to join service organizations. She was a Rotary Summer Exchange Student in Finland; a volunteer tor the Student Conservation Association of Great Smoky National Park; a volunteer at the Women's Shelter in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and a life member of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. She graduated from Western Reserve Academy as a National Merit Scholar semi-finalist in 1980 and from the University of Michigan in 1985.
Between high school and college, Ruth went to Israel on Year Course, a gap year program sponsored by Hadassah, which is currently the largest gap year program in Israel. She loved the country, the people she met and thoroughly enjoyed the study program of history, religion and Hebrew. She also worked on a “moshav,” a cooperative farm, that grew carnations for export.
For nearly 30 years, the Ruth Rosenblum Fund has made grants to enable other students to travel to Israel to, as her parents wrote, "share Ruth's enthusiasm for the land that was her heritage.”