UFT Admin
- Retired Teacher
Rita Zimonowitz, a dedicated teacher, committed to earning the trust and respect of all students, died on Nov. 24, 2024, of an aneurysm. She was 74.
Rita, who grew up in Crown Heights and Carnarsie in Brooklyn, began teaching in 1972. She quickly found a home at PS 181 in East Flatbush, where she remained until her retirement in 2008. She taught 1st and 2nd grades and spent a large portion of her career as a reading teacher. Her longtime colleague and friend, Rochelle Rappaport, with whom Rita shared an office, remembered Rita as a teacher with excellent classroom management skills.
“She had total control of the class,” Rappaport recalled. Administration assigned challenging students to Rita, knowing that she could handle even the toughest of behavior issues, Rappaport said. “If there was a kid who might be a discipline problem, she got him,” and after the student had spent some time in Rita’s classroom, “you would think that student was the best student in the school,” said Rappaport.
Teachers who would come into Rita’s classroom to teach art, music or other “special” subjects would often ask her to stay near during her prep, so she’d set up a table and chair just outside her classroom door to reassure her students that she was nearby. Her presence meant her students behaved better. “I was amazed at her discipline,” said Rappaport. “I wanted to know her secret!”
Rita was committed to meeting students where they were, said Rappaport. “She believed in teaching to the kids at their level” – starting there and accelerating them when appropriate. This caused some conflicts with administration, Rappaport said, but Rita always stood her ground. This commitment to and respect for her students meant that students’ confidence and willingness to work hard increased under her instruction.
“She gave them the confidence to try,” said Rappaport. “The kids really performed. They made great progress in her class.”
Rita was widely liked by staff, administration and families, and she produced an annual Christmas show for the school’s families. Her students trusted and respected her, and on three occasions, they nominated her for “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.”
Rita’s husband, Larry Fuerst, said that, in retirement, Rita loved to shop and try new restaurants.
She is remembered as a warm and gregarious partner and friend who kept in touch with people in the building she lived in as a child. She tracked down classmates from her own 1st-grade class from the mid-1950s and arranged a reunion in the mid-2010s.
Rappoport said even when they had both retired and moved away from Canarsie, they continued to have lengthy catch-up conversations on the phone. A couple of weeks before Rita’s death, she and Rappaport chatted for several hours.
In addition to her husband, Rita is survived by her cousins, Bertram and Barbara Cohen.
Condolences can be sent to:
Larry Fuerst
1945 East 38th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11234
