Rosa Rein, World’s Oldest Jew, Dies at 112

By Marcy Oster (JTA) February 16, 2010

Switzerland’s oldest resident, believed to be the world’s oldest Jew, died about a month shy of her 113th birthday.

Rosa Rein died Sunday in her sleep at an old age home near Lugano, Switzerland that was her residence since a fall in 2001.

Rein was born in Poland in March 1897. She married a German man and the couple immigrated to Brazil in 1938. Rein’s husband died after their arrival in Brazil.

Rein remarried in 1949. The couple moved to the outskirts of Lugano in 1964 for health reasons; she was widowed again in 1973.

Rein has been the oldest person living in Switzerland since Sept. 2003. She is believed to be the oldest Jew in the world.

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