Jamie Kreiman

HILLSDALE - Jamie Kreiman passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends on December 21, 2023. Born in 1953 in Duluth MN to Beti and Mel, Jamie grew up as part of a large extended family just blocks apart and spent her summers at Herzl Camp in Webster WI. She would later move to Minneapolis to earn a bachelors in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota, spending her junior year abroad at Hebrew University in Israel, where the Yom Kippur War would break out later that same year. She remained a fierce Zionist all her life. Jamie then pursued a masters in Social Work from Yeshiva University in New York City, where she would later meet the love of her life, Ike Gavzy. The two were happily married for 27 years, practicing tikkun olam, raising their son Sam and various Schnauzer children, and traveling the world before Ike’s passing in 2011.

Professionally, Jamie first worked to help re-settle migrant families in the Minneapolis area with Jewish Family Services and later as a clinical social worker at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, where she worked tirelessly for 41 years. Service is written into Jamie’s DNA and that of her family, carrying a spark and joy for caring for others at work and in her community through decades of service to her synagogue, Congregation B’nai Israel. With a natural warmth, Jamie always managed to connect with people no matter where she was in the world.

She adored her family, and they her. Jamie is survived by son Sam Gavzy and son-in-law Charlie Acosta Gavzy; sister Jennifer Kreiman and husband Jon Kachelmacher (nieces and nephew, Leah, Kari, Tom, and Regina); brother Michael Kreiman and partner Katie Liu; brother-in-law William Gavzy (nieces and nephew, Arianna, Asher, and Jaclyn); and sister-in-law Deborah and husband Jerry Nedelman (niece and nephews, Liza, John, and Al).