Jacob’s Story
For the last couple of years of his life, deeply concerned about the plight of the homeless, our Jacob chose to experience life on the streets... For several years previously, Jacob would go out on the streets and meet those who were struggling - in Prague where we have family and he grew up, in Israel when he spent a summer there in a program, and during two terms at Oxford University in England. For the last two years of his life, Jacob lived in a car all around this country, picking up work as he went, not accepting anything from us... He did this on his own, totally alone. He did not carry a phone, but would occasionally borrow a phone from someone to check in.
Finally I said to him, "Jacob, we just feel like you're on a spiritual journey." Jacob, who never liked to confirm or deny anything, replied simply, "Yup, that's exactly what I'm doing."
Jacob was profoundly spiritual, keenly interested in aspects of many religions, and lived a clean, pure life - he was a vegetarian, didn't drink, smoke or do drugs, would fast and meditate, would walk for miles and hike in the woods, loved nature and animals - he was like a modern-day monk, a renunciant who questioned what it's all about. He lived by his beliefs and moral convictions without compromise.
When Jacob came back from Oxford, at one point we were talking and he said: “Mom, I don’t know how anyone could have gotten more out of their time at Oxford - when I wasn’t in my tutorials, I would look at the list of lectures and go listen; I visited every college, checked out every library, and went to each garden…” and then he paused and said, “And I got to know the homeless… and sometimes I slept in the woods with them.”
Before he left on his two-year journey, Jacob would go around the DC area, sometimes disappearing for days, and meet the homeless community. Even at our home, he would frequently sleep outside or in the woods behind our house. He would carry a jug of water and loaf of bread for food.
In one of many discussions, he told his youngest sister Rebecca that there was "active disattention" to the homeless.
Jacob and Mr. Bunny, the family’s pet lop whom Jacob loved and cared about deeply
Jacob had been living in San Francisco, and when he was found, it appeared that he just went to sleep and for some reason, his heart suddenly stopped. The first thing the medical examiner said was, "I want to reassure you - not a mark on his body, no signs of drugs or alcohol... And believe me, I've done a lot of these and I know what to look for... if I had to guess, I would say it was a fluky cardiac event."
After eight months of autopsy in which they tested for absolutely everything, the only thing that they were sure about was that it was natural causes.