Edith "Edna" H. Ritzenberg

Edith “Edna” H. Ritzenberg (Heneck) of Canton, Massachusetts, formerly of Woodmere and Hewlett Neck, New York, passed away peacefully with loved ones by her side after a short illness, on Thursday, October 12, 2023, just a few weeks shy of her 95th birthday.

Edna was the loving wife of the late Phillip Ritzenberg, Commander, USNR, the beloved mother of Jonathan A. Ritzenberg of Los Angeles, California and of Jeremy Ritzenberg and his wife Jill Scirpo of Westwood, Massachusetts and the cherished grandmother of Jack Ritzenberg and Julia Ritzenberg, also of Westwood, Massachusetts.

Edna was born in Cape Town, South Africa on December 11, 1928 to the late Eva and Joseph Heneck, also of Cape Town, and was predeceased by her brother Harold Heneck and her sisters Esther “Babsie” Dorman, Connie Aronson and Joy Herman, of Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to her children and grandchildren, Edna is survived by countless beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, in the United States, South Africa, England and Australia.

Edna was a long-time resident of Woodmere and Hewlett Neck, New York, and was a beloved teacher at Ogden Elementary School in North Woodmere, New York and a sought-after docent at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in Manhattan, New York. Edna was also a long-time member of Congregations Sons of Israel and Temple Beth El, a past president of the Peninsula Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, a lifelong member of Hadassah and a former Deputy Mayor the Village of Hewlett Neck.

In 1955, while working as a school teacher in her native Cape Town, Edna brought her nieces and nephews to the port of Cape Town to see the USS Midway aircraft carrier. Prior to visiting the ship, Edna had called the ship as part of a Union of Jewish Women program to offer hospitality to Jewish sailors. Phil was the liaison officer that Edna spoke with, and was the duty officer when Edna appeared at the ship with her nieces and nephew. Phil then accompanied Edna, in his dress Navy whites, to her sister’s farm for dinner and to see Table Mountain. After two days together Phil and Edna exchanged love letters for a year. Edna was then offered a job teaching English in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was preparing to leave South Africa. When she told Phil of her plans, he suggested that they meet in Naples, Italy, which was her ship’s last stop before Israel. Phil then hitch-hiked a series of Navy planes to meet Edna in Naples, where they hired witnesses off the street and were married, in Italian, by the Vice-Mayor of Naples. Edna and Phil then moved to a Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, to Cleveland, Ohio, where their two sons, Jonathan and Jeremy were born, and to Far Rockaway, Woodmere and Hewlett Neck, New York, where they enjoyed their life together for 66 years until Phil’s death in 2022.

In Cleveland and then in New York, Edna returned to her career as a school teacher, eventually teaching at the Ogden Elementary School in North Woodmere, New York for 28 years, where she taught 4th , 5th and 6th grades and ran its gifted student program. At the Ogden School, she was the first woman teacher to dare to wear pants to work, breaking the ice for the other women teachers at Ogden and throughout the school district. She was also the only teacher to ever host a sitting president in her class when, despite being a lifelong Democrat, she invited President Reagan to visit her class while he was campaigning for re-election near the school. Much to her surprise, President Reagan accepted her invitation and met and posed for photos with Edna and each one of her students, accompanied by the secret service and the television news, of course.

Edna retired from teaching in 1992, but her students never wanted to let her go. She was a local celebrity, and her former students continued to contact her for years, even setting up a Facebook group to share stories and fond memories of her classes. After retiring from teaching, Edna became a docent at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan, and had a following there as well, with many museum visitors asking for her by name. She then retired as a docent and began running public and private book discussion groups, at libraries and retirement homes throughout the area.

After Phil passed away in 2022, Edna moved to Canton, Massachusetts to the Orchard Cove retirement community, where she became an active and vital part of that community before taking ill and passing away quickly and peacefully from pneumonia complications.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Memorial Service on Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 11am at the Stanetsky Memorial Chapel at 475 Washington Street in Canton, MA, followed by a shiva luncheon at Orchard Cove, 1 Del Pond Drive, Canton, MA.

Chapel Service will be livestreamed at https://tinyurl.com/Edith-H-Ritzenberg

In lieu of flowers, donations in Edna’s name may be made to the United Jewish Appeal www.ujafedny.org or the Nature Conservancy www.natureconservancy.org, or trees may be planted at www.jnf.org