I am very saddened to report the death of Risa Igelfeld, of San Fernando Valley, California, at age 108 years, 282 days. She was born on 1 November 1917 in Vienna, Austria to parents Ruben Knie and Dora Relles. Her mother Dora died during the Spanish Flu in 1918. 

A Jewish woman living in Austria during the Nazi invasion in 1938, she was a witness to mass destruction and violence. Nazi soldiers stopped her and ordered to their headquarters to clean, but once she found out that they intended to hurt her, she didn't show up.

She went to college in Vienna, where she studied French and English. Her English professor fled to England, who later sent for Risa, allowing her to escape to England in January 1939. Her professor helped her find a job as a housekeeper, where she helped take care of a family with two children. She became a popular performer and musician. She married Gershon Igelfeld in 1948 in England and they had two children, David and Ruthie. 

After moving to the United States in 1949, they settled in Los Angeles. Risa taught at Hollywood Los Feliz JCC starting in the mid-1950s. In 1963, she started to teach at Westside JCC, where she taught for 40 years.

She was one of the oldest living Holocaust survivors in the world and one of the top 5 living people born in Austria. 

(Aged 108 in February 2026, courtesy of her family)