Before retiring from paid work Rita managed an independent bookshop for 13 years. Prior to that she was a teacher and teacher-librarian in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions during which she published numerous professional articles and presented many conference and seminar papers. She described the process of coming to terms with her Holocaust background in her story ‘The Last Barrier’ which was published in Children of the Shadows: Voices of the Second Generation  and  selected for reading on Radio National’s First Person program. Apart from helping with grandchildren, Rita is a guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum and continues to volunteer in the Museum’s Library and Research Centre.  This is her 7th season on the Jewish Writers Festival Program Committee.