Friends and family knew Ruth Rales for her unassuming style and her unique cuisine, while thousands of strangers have benefited from her fierce devotion to family through a charitable organization that bears her name.
Mrs. Rales, 81, died in her Hillsboro Beach home Sunday from breast cancer, relatives said.
The Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service of South Palm Beach County, west of Boca Raton, forms part of her legacy.
Born into a modest Russian-American family in Pittsburgh, Mrs. Rales married her husband, Norman Rales, who grew up in an orphanage in New York City, 55 years ago. The two met in Miami while Mrs. Rales worked behind the counter of her family’s dry-cleaning business. Norman Rales was a customer.
The couple settled first in Pittsburgh and then Washington, D.C., eventually amassing a fortune through Norman Rales’ home improvement business.
“Her real focus when we were growing up was on her husband and children,” said Joshua Rales, 46, of Potomac, Md., the youngest of the Raleses’ four sons. “A lot of folks focus on their children being accomplished. My mother focused on us being kind people. She did that by spending time with us and caring for us through our stomachs. She made the best matzoh ball soup ever, and she never used recipes so you couldn’t duplicate what she cooked. She baked and cooked from the heart.”
The Raleses started coming to Florida in the 1970s, initially staying in Boca Raton, where they bought a house and grew roots in the community. After 1996, they divided their time between their homes in Potomac and Hillsboro Beach.
In 1990, they made a substantial contribution that allowed the construction of the 20,000-square-foot building that houses the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service of South Palm Beach County, founded in 1979. The new building, on the Jewish Federation’s Siemens Campus, opened in 1991.
“The most important aspect of Ruth Rales’ life was her family. She had a great concern for families, especially those less fortunate than herself,” said Jaclynn Faffer, the service’s executive director. She said the agency offers support services to 15,000 people each year.
Bill Bernstein, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, said the Raleses’ philanthropy had a major impact on the area, and the couple contributed regularly to the federation’s annual campaign.
Despite the family’s considerable wealth and philanthropic activities, Ruth Rales took a low-key approach to life that her family says helped her through a 1988 cancer diagnosis. In the last days of her life, Joshua Rales said, a home care nurse helped hoist her up in her kitchen as she began preparations for the upcoming Passover holiday.
The self-effacing good humor his mother was known for, Joshua Rales recalled, marked her recent words to a friend when she summed up her ailing health: “Thank God it’s not so serious.”
Funeral services for Mrs. Rales were Tuesday in Washington, D.C. She is survived by her husband, Norman, 80; sons Steven, 53, of Washington, D.C., Stewart, 52, of Fort Lauderdale, Mitchell, 47, of Potomac and Joshua, 46, of Potomac; and seven grandchildren.
Tal Abbady can be reached at or 561-243-6624.
