✔ Age Certified by LongeviQuest
Elsa “Elsie” Rich (née Schiffman) was an Austrian-born American supercentenarian who was the second-oldest living person born in Austria. Her age has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) and the European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO), and recognised by LongeviQuest.
Rich was born as Elsa Schiffman in Vienna, Austria (then Austria-Hungary). She was brought up assisting in the family’s textile factory. When she was 12 years old, she lost her father; her mother subsequently took over the factory. As a teen, she was greatly influenced by Austrian psychiatrist and Freud contemporary Alfred Adler.
Rich married businessman Henry Siegfried Reich in May 1932. In 1938, the couple awoke to find a Nazi flag on the hotel adjacent to their house, they quickly emigrated to the United States, anglicizing their surname to Rich, and Elsa doing so with her first name, to Elsie.
Having no children, Rich and her husband bought a chicken farm in Santa Rosa, California in the early 1940s. In 1943, they founded synagogue Congregation Beth Ami. Rich later co-founded Petaluma Haddassah in 1947, a Jewish women’s club.
Rich was widowed on 6 January 1976. She would live independently until she was 106, becoming a keen Scrabble player, and leading exercise classes as a nonagenarian. She never smoked and seldom drank alcohol, which she credited for her secret to longevity, as well as staying active. She was able to do the splits aged 90.
Rich died in a senior care facility in Santa Rosa, California, on 29 December 2011 at the age of 110 years, 145 days, being one of the oldest living Jewish people in the world.
At the time of her death, Rich was the second-oldest Austria native after Hermine Nistler (1900 – 2012). Shortly after her 110th birthday, she was visited by Dr. L. Stephen Coles, founder of the GRG, and his wife Natalie. They found her to be mentally sharp despite her deteriorating hearing.
Rich’s age was verified by Dr. Andrew Holmes, Dr. L. Stephen Coles, and Stefan Jamin, and was validated by the GRG and the ESO on 14 November 2014 and 14 April 2022 respectively.
Rich in an undated photo (Source: GRG Gallery)
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