Rita Auerbach Orpett

Rita Auerbach Orpett of Beachwood passed away on March 18, 2025 on her 97th birthday. She was preceded in death by her life-long love, Howard, to whom she was married for 64 years. Born in Brooklyn, NY to immigrant, Yiddish-speaking intellectual parents, her family moved to Cleveland when Rita was 14. There she was thrilled to attend Glenville High School and then Flora Stone Mather College (now CWRU). After graduation, she taught elementary school in Cleveland before moving to Chicago with Howard. In Chicago, she became a reading specialist in the Chicago Public Schools and was later recruited to teach at and direct a Jewish nursery school. She dedicated herself to researching early childhood development and education through reading, interviews, and visits to successful programs. She loved working with young children in a Jewish context and was proud of guiding the school to become one of the best in the area, earning recognition from the Chicago Jewish Board of Education for her work.

Returning to Cleveland 28 years after leaving for Chicago, she reignited old friendships and took her educational skills in a new direction, teaching knitting and developing custom patterns for customers of Stitch’n Time knit shop. She also volunteered at the Beachwood library and was a committed subscriber to live theater and the Cleveland Orchestra. Rita and Howard loved to travel, creating their own itineraries for trips in the US, Israel, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. Rita’s most intense devotion was to her family, and to the many friends who became family, including American and international friends of her children who were always welcome at their home, with or without their own children present. Rita was widely known for her Thanksgiving dinners and Passover seders, and her sense of humor and wit will be greatly missed.

Rita is survived by her children Susan (Bruce) Long of Gates Mills, OH and Mitchell (Cathie) Orpett of Chicago, IL; grandchildren Carl Long (Sara Bickler), Eric (Maddie) Long, Natalie Orpett (David Stoopler), and Jackie Orpett (Aaron Piatkowski); great-grandchildren of Freya, Zoe, Ellie, Cameron, Asher and Hannah; brother Boris Auerbach (Kathy Patchel) of Indianapolis, IN; and nieces and nephews Elizabeth (James) Batson, David Auerbach (Juliana Sorem), Steven z’l (Alison) Auerbach, Joshua, Shoshana, Mathew, Max, and Spence.

Funeral services were held on March 21, 2025 at Suburban Temple Kol Ami, followed by burial at Mt. Olive Cemetery. Contributions in Rita's memory are suggested to Suburban Temple Kol Ami, the Yiddish Book Center, Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, or to an organization promoting social justice or interreligious or intercultural understanding.