Rachel “Rosie” Schwalb (Grynbaum)

Longterm resident of Beit Horim Pinchas, an independent living center, in Ramat Gan, Israel, died peacefully on June 14, 2017 at the age of 95. She is survived by her children Miriam (Harvey) Solomon of Chesterfield and Eddy (Nili) Shalev  of Israel; brother Henry (Daniela) Grynbaum of Israel; sisters-in-law Irene Grynbaum of Belgium and Zipporah Shabat of Israel; grandchildren Ruth (Rob Ditzion) Solomon of Boston, Michael A. Solomon of St. Louis, Tamar Solomon of Seattle, Ofra Shalev (Ruby Leibovits) of Israel, and Yoni (Chen) Shalev of Israel; great-grandchildren Elijah Solomon Ditzion of Boston, Adam and Michael Shalev of Israel, and Eleanor Shalev of Israel. In addition she had close ties with numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews in Israel, France, and Chicago.

Rachel was born in Poland on October 3, 1921 and emigrated in 1928 with her parents to Brussels. In 1940 she and her younger sister Annie fled to Vichy  France but they were caught and sent to  a Nazi internment camp. A French guard took pity on them allowing them to  escape and reach the south. They obtained forged identity documents with the help of a Jesuit priest, who later was sent to a death camp. For the remainder of the war, she worked on farms in the French Pyrenees and aided other refugees.

Following the liberation she returned to Belgium to rejoin her relatives. In 1947 she married Menashe “Michel” Schwalb who came to Brussels from Transylvania after having survived harsh treatment by the fascist Romanian authorities which included clearing mine fields on the Russian front. They moved to Israel in 1949 with their two infant children and settled in Nes Ziona where her husband served as city manager. In 1962 she trained in French language instruction at the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée in Besançon and subsequently gave courses at the Weizmann Institute as well as private lessons.  Following the death of her husband in 1973 she moved to Rehovot but continued to teach, as well as volunteering with elderly immigrants.

She will be remembered as a loving grandmother and friend, an excellent cook and baker, a lover of classical music, and an avid reader.  In addition to French she was fluent in Hebrew, English, Yiddish and German. According to her wishes her body will be donated to the Anatomy Department of the Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University.