Rina Shack, of Pennington, New Jersey, passed away Monday, April 26, 2021 at the age of 91.
Rina Shack was born in Vienna, Austria on August 15, 1929 to Anna and Leo Ginsberg. In 1938, at the age of 9, Rina and her family escaped the Nazi Regime that was closing in on Jewish families in Vienna and immigrated to Palestine and 3 years later to New York City. While German was her native tongue she learned Hebrew while living in Palestine and later English once settled in the U.S. Rina attended school in Brooklyn and received her Bachelor of Science degree from Hunter College majoring in Chemistry and Psychology. She later went on to study Psychology at the graduate level at Columbia University.
Rina, in the late 1960’s worked as a social worker supporting foster care children at The Leake and Watts Orphanage in Westchester County. In the mid-1970’s-1980’s Rina was the Director of The Mercer County Senior Citizen’s Nutrition Program supporting social, recreational and nutritional needs of seniors. After retiring, while raising her children Rina worked as a real estate broker.
Through Rina’s varied careers she was able to express many of her special qualities—including her ability to take people in need under her wing and help them achieve their goals; her unbridled at times charismatic loving personality, her intelligence, her social connectedness, as well as her kind and empathic nature.
Rina was predeceased by her loving husband Norman in 2002. She is survived by her three adoring children Susan, Jonathan and Daniel and their spouses, as well as six beautiful grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral services and burial will be private at The Princeton Cemetery, N.J.
The family respectfully requests that contributions offered in Rina’s memory be directed to support:
Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JFCS) of Greater Mercer County www.jfcsonline.org/tributes/
and/ or
Jewish National Fund Tree Center (JNF) usa.jnf.org/jnf-tree-planting-center/
Rina was a good friend. She introduced me to Wellington Manor, encouraging me to move here, which I did – right down the street from her. I have never attended (on line) a funeral where the deceased was so accurately depicted as Rina was by her son. It was wonderful to hear him speak about her. Rina talked often about her children. The love was obviously reciprocated.
How sad to learn of Rina’s passing. Bruce was just saying to me that we haven’t chatted with Rina this year. I called several times, during the year, but the phone was never answered. Rina and Norman were wonderful neighbors in Pennington. Of course, going to the casino with Rina was special because of our great conversations while driving to and fro. We loved having her visit us in Tucson. She was a special person to Bruce and me and loved providing updates to me about her children and grandchildren.