Rosalyn Benitez Bloch

1933 - 2022

June 6, 1933 - February 3, 2022 Dr. Rosalyn Benitez Bloch passed away on February 3, 2022. She was 88-years-old. She was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Gottfried Bloch, who died in 2008.
Roz, as she liked to be called, was born Rosalyn Pearl Kartun, in 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts to Leah and Adolph Kartun, immigrants from Russia. She had a younger brother, Everett, who predeceased her.

Roz started her indomitable life path at an early age. At 15-years-old, she became the youngest student to be admitted to Brandeis University. She went on to finish her BA and MSW at Cal Berkeley and later received her Doctorate in Social Work at USC in 1974.

Roz had a rich and productive career in social work and mental health. She was often sought after as a skilled psychotherapist, consultant, professor, writer and speaker. A leader in her field, Roz broke the glass ceiling in 1975 by becoming the first female Director of Jewish Family Services of Los Angeles. She taught at the UCLA School of Social Welfare; the USC School of Social Work; Hebrew Union College; the Wright Institute; the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; and the California Graduate Institute, where she was voted teacher of the year in 1995.

She was a pioneering teacher and researcher on the impact of climate change on a person's and society's mental health, and she presented her work in this area at national and international conferences.

Roz began her private practice in 1966. As a highly regarded psychotherapist, she continued to practice and help families, couples and individual patients until 2021. Roz published many papers in professional journals and other edited volumes of scholarly work. She was best known for the book she co-wrote with her husband Dr. Gottfried Bloch, a holocaust survivor, "Unfree Associations: A Psychoanalyst Recollects the Holocaust."

Throughout her long and dynamic career, Roz continued to advocate for strong social and mental health services. She consulted professionally at many agencies including the Veteran's Administration Psychiatric Hospital Brentwood; Jewish Family and Children's Services; St. Joseph's Seminary in Camarillo; and Airport Marina Counseling Service in Los Angeles. She also represented the Academy for Jewish Religion, and interviewed prospective students looking to become rabbinical candidates and cantors. She was active on a number of boards, most recently the advisory committee of the UCLA Division of Internal Geriatric Medicine.

Ultimately Roz was a people-person, one who was loved and admired by friends and colleagues alike. Smart and fun and caring, she combined intellectual rigor with compassionate, emotional insight and a wry sense of humor. In her numerous trips around the world, she made sure to connect with people of different backgrounds and histories. Invariably she returned from these journeys having made a new friend.

In the last days of Roz's life, she was surrounded by her close adopted family, Dr. Lisa Halotek and her husband, John Lang, and her beloved caregiver, Adelina Ziegler. Dr. Bloch passed peacefully in her sleep. She will be interred in a private ceremony next to her husband in the Garden of Heritage at Mount Sinai Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, friends and family are encouraged to give a donation to one of her favorite organizations, such as the National Resources Defense Council or the Clean Air Task Force. There will be an online Memorial of Roz's life on a date to be announced.