Rita Navarre
Bournemouth synagogue leader who became first female warden
BOURNEMOUTH REFORM Synagogue President, Rita Navarre, who has died aged 86, became very involved with the synagogue after moving to Bournemouth with her husband Jack in 1983. She was the Guild’s chair for many years and also served on the synagogue’s council. Rita became the first female warden and eventually senior warden until the 2016 AGM.
Following the death of her husband in 2006, BRS became her life. She was extremely well known within the Bournemouth Jewish community, from the time she worked in the local kosher deli. Rita was also present to help those needing guidance, using her own practical experience.
Rita was born in East London to Leah and Sidney Mayover, who already had a five-year-old son Colin. She attended a private school, Heathfield House, and remained there until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 when she and the school were evacuated to Byfleet in Surrey. Her parents remained in London for the first year, but in 1940, moved to Luton, which had an influx of Jewish people. She and her brother were enrolled at the local school.
However, the small cheder could not cope with the number of evacuees, so her father and a friend formed the South Beds Hebrew Education Board, using the local school facilities. In 1945, Rita was awarded the Cyril Galkof prize for pupil teachers (now called Madrichim) and her prize took pride of place on her bookcase.
She learned shorthand and typing and briefly worked in Luton before moving to London to join a Hatton Garden diamond dealer, and later a Regent Street button manufacturer.
Rita met her husband Jack on a late night train from London in 1957 and they married on August 25 that year at the Hammersmith and West Kensington Synagogue.
Rita had a heart murmur and hospital tests revealed a hole in the heart. In 1959 she had an operation at the London Hospital to repair it, but was sad at being advised not to have children.
Following convalescence in Bournemouth she returned to Luton and took over her father’s fancy goods and jewellery business in a covered market stall. When a few years later it moved to new premises in the Arndale Centre, she became its first woman chairman.
She then opened a sandwich bar and, with the help of a friend, diverted into outside catering. Her husband’s early retirement and her decision to relinquish her business inspired the move to Bournemouth. Due to her cardiac problems, she moved into the Hannah Levy House a few weeks before she died. Her guidance and cheerful disposition will be missed by many.
SYLVIA ELKINS
Rita Navarre: born April 30, 1930. Died March 2, 2017