RHEA TAUBER SITS at a small electric typewriter in her second-floor home office, tapping out a slow and steady rhythm on the machine’s keys.

The room’s walls are obscured by hundreds of family photos, shelves of books and decades’ worth of community and education awards and honors.

“This is all inspiration,” she said, pausing her typing to gesture at different images, some in faded black and white, others in vibrant color. “My family. My children, grandchildren and great grandchildren over there.” She turns in her chair. “My husband’s portrait hanging over there. It’s my life, and that’s what I write about. So I surround myself with the memories.”

At 99, Tauber has memories to spare, and, as a columnist for the Westchester Jewish Chronicle, she’s been drawing on them all for 35 years. It’s a long and storied career, one that’s made Tauber a fixture in not only her home town of Yonkers, but all of Westchester.

And now, with her 100th birthday fast approaching, the Jewish Council of Yonkers has decided to honor the writer with a celebration on April 22. (Her birthday is actually in June, but what’s a couple months over the course of a lifetime?)

“I can’t believe I’m turning 100, I never imagined it,” she says. “People keep asking me what my secret is, and I don’t know what to tell them. I wish I had the answer.”

Tauber is one of the country’s oldest working journalists, and over the years she’s regaled her fans with stories covering a wide range of topics, including her family, the arts, her childhood and numerous social and political issues. She uses her column to express her opinions, and she writes with a familiar, conversational style that mirrors her speaking, right down to the peppering of Yiddish words and phrases.

“I’m definitely opinionated,” said Tauber. “Who isn’t? But I never try to force my opinions on others. I’ll say what I want to say, and let you decide for yourself whether you agree with me or not. It’s about presenting different ideas.”

Born Rhea Sapodin in Odessa, Russia, Tauber moved to the United States in 1914, and settled in Brooklyn with her parents, Louis and Fanya, and siblings, Bella and Harry. Her father, she said, fostered in her an intellectual curiosity that remains with her today.


“He was always reading different newspapers, getting different points of view, and always discussing the world with us,” she said.

With her family’s encouragement, the young Tauber excelled in school. No one was surprised, she said, when she eventually became a teacher in 1928.

Tauber met her husband, Abraham, in 1935 while on a cruise to Europe, Russia and Palestine. They had three children: Lucy, June and Peter. By 1968, with the kids out of the house, Tauber and her husband had moved to Yonkers, where they continued careers in education and community activism.

Tauber’s marriage was happy, but she admited that, during much of the time, “I was always known as ‘Abe’s wife.’ ”

There’s no bitterness in this revelation, it’s delivered as simply a statement of fact. “I didn’t mind. But when he passed away, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” she said.

At 65, Tauber had decided to finally leave the school system that had been part of her life for so long. Retirement, however, never felt like a legitimate option.

In 1972, Gene Lubin, then editor for what was at the time called the Yonkers Jewish Chronicle (and who now is one of the owners of the Westchester Jewish Chronicle), asked Tauber if she’d like to contribute an article for the paper.

She agreed, and said that, “suddenly, I found something I absolutely loved to do, and was good at. Gene encouraged me, and soon I was writing regularly.”

Originally, her column was called “Around Town,” but some readers had better a better idea, said Tauber. Pointing out that almost all of the columns were about Tauber’s life, one fan suggested “Rhea’s World.” The name stuck.

Over the next three decades, Tauber’s readership continued to grow, and in 1986 she issued a collection of her columns in book form called, appropriately enough, “Rhea’s World.” A second, as yet untitled, book is in the works and, of course, Tauber continues to submit her columns to the Chronicle. Every once in a while, a fan will greet her on the street and make the mistake of asking whether or not she plans on taking a well deserved break. Heaven forbid!

“I still have something to say, and I’ve still got a voice with which to say it,” she said, smiling. “I haven’t missed a deadline yet, and I don’t plan on starting now.” WJC