Eva Ritt, activist and advocate for the Jewish people and Israel, dies at 93

Former Winter Park resident Eva London Ritt, a Holocaust survivor who fought for the rights and freedom of Soviet Jewry, passed away peacefully in Chicago, Illinois, surrounded by her loving family, on Saturday, May 9, 2026. She was 93.

Eva was born Jan. 23, 1933, in Hamburg, Germany to Max and Charlotte Bianca (Wolff) London. She often shared with all seriousness that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany one week after her birth. Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of Broken Glass," took place in Germany and Austria when she was 5 years old.

"I do remember Kristallnacht when they burned the synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses, and arrested men and boys," she told WKMG-TV in Orlando, Florida, in 2021. "I remember my mother running to the school where my brother attended because the synagogue next to it was burning, and they arrested all the teachers."

Eva and her immediate family fled Germany and took a train to Italy. In the "8 Over 80" 2018 booklet, Eva wrote, "We were extremely fortunate to leave for Genoa, Italy on May 15, 1940. Five days later the first deportations began in Hamburg."

When they reached the Italian border, they were stopped.

"The German police got on and told my father his papers weren't in order, he has to get off the train," she recalled. "Of course that would've meant the end for all of us, and he said, 'My papers are in order,' and the Italian military was standing right there and they said to the Germans, 'We'll take care of it.' So, the Italians saved our lives."

A few days later, she and her family boarded a ship bound for New York from the Italian city of Genoa. The family resettled in Baltimore, where her mother's cousin lived. Most of their extended family perished during the Holocaust.

While on vacation at Lake Placid, N.Y., Eva met David Elliott Ritt from Ottawa, Canada. They married in 1956, and together they built a beautiful family while living in several places, including Canada, before settling in Florida in 1972. Eva worked several years as a nurse before taking time away from her career to raise her adored family.

Eva became a leading activist and advocate in Central Florida for Jews in the former Soviet Union.

In 1975, the plight of Soviet Jews was beginning to be heard worldwide. Eva and David were members of the Congregation of Liberal Judaism where she started a committee to save the Jews of the Soviet Union. People here started sending letters, making phone calls and holding protests about the Soviet Jews. Eva became the conscience of the Orlando community. Through a communitywide effort, exit visas were obtains for many Soviet Jews.

"I could not sit back and watch what was going on in the Soviet Union and not provide aid to our own people," she said.

This was Eva. A kind and gentle woman, who spoke her mind to fight for truth and freedom.

She educated the community about the plight of fellow Jews who became known as "refusniks." Those Jews who for decades had not been allowed to live as Jews in Russia, were raising their voices and demanding freedom. The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando formed a Soviet Jewry Committee and Eva chaired those activities.

Under her direction, activities to increase the public's awareness of the imprisonment and isolation of those Jews speaking out in the former Soviet Union became more frequent, and many more people got involved in the movement.

In addition to educating the community, Eva wrote letters to political leaders, including Presidents Ford and Carter, senators and congressmen. She had a framed letter from Prime Minister Menachem Begin thanking her for all her efforts to help the Soviet Jews which she proudly hung on her wall.

Eva was so concerned about freeing the Soviet Jews that this soft-spoken woman once chastised the Orlando Jewish community in an open letter printed in The Heritage in 1977 for the indifference shown by lack of attendance when a relative of a Refusenik came to speak at a Human Rights Day program. "A love for Israel and a love for Judaism includes a dedication to save Soviet Jews... Jews anywhere!" she passionately proclaimed. She ended the letter with "What must happen to make you care and act? I hear echoes of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Mauthausen. You are the Soviet Jews only hope." And because Eva fully believed this, she acted and made a difference.

In 2015, Ritt donated her personal archive of materials from the Soviet Jewry movement era to the Yeshiva University Archives. The collection included correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs and artifacts from the 1970s and 1980s in memory of her late husband, David Ritt z"l, who, she said, was her greatest supporter, and in honor of all those who participated with her in this effort.

"I'm very glad that the archives found a home," she said. "It's an important part of modern-day Jewish history, to see the grassroots effort and organizations that worked together and were successful. It's what the Jewish community of Central Florida did. It's important for future generations to know."

In 1980 she became the administrator of the Holocaust Center, working closely with founder Tess Wise. During the 30 years she worked there, she was interviewed by the Spielberg Foundation to share her experiences in escaping the Holocaust.

She was deeply proud of her Jewish heritage and took great pride in sharing it with others.

"Learn the history, don't repeat it," she advised students. "There's no room for prejudice. Everybody is a human being, and that kindness goes a long way, and it doesn't take much effort."

In the 1990s she with Sandi Solomon, Judy Shujman and Diana Simone, founded a group comprised of Christians and Jews called the Zionistas. This small group sponsored several monthly programs that educated the community about Israel. The group was successful for more than 8 years and then became a chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.

In 2018, Eva was selected as one of Kinneret Council on Aging's "8 Over 80 Honoraries" for her outstanding lifetime achievements.

Several years ago, Eva moved to Highland Park, Ill., to be near her daughter, Linda Kupfer.

Eva was predeceased by her beloved husband of 58 wonderful years, David; and her brother, Edgar London.

She is survived by her children, Simon (Jan Collins) Ritt, Linda (Stuart) Kupfer, and Michael (Jennie) Ritt; grandchildren - Avi (Conner McMains) Kupfer, Noam and Liora Kupfer, and Matthew, Joseph, Summer, and Blaze Ritt; much-loved sister, Ruth DiStefano and sister-in-law Toni London; and many, many friends.

Eva will be dearly missed by all whose lives she touched. Memorial donations in her honor may be made to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, Illinois 60077, http://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org or the Jewish United Fund, 30 S. Wells Street, Chicago, Illinois 60606, http://www.juf.org.

Services were held in Baltimore, Maryland with interment to take place at Chevra Ahavas Chesed Cemetery in Randallstown, Md.