The Jewish community of Lugano, Switzerland, bid farewell to the country’s oldest person, Rosa Rein, who passed away Feb. 14 at a nursing home in the commune of Paradiso. Locals believed her to be the oldest Jew in the world.

In her 112 years, Rein saw the worst of European history and the continent’s rebirth in the wake of World War II. Rabbi Yaakov Kantor, director of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Greater Lugano described her as a fascinating woman who enjoyed visiting with Jewish children.

“She was thrilled when our Hebrew school came to visit,” reported Kantor, who since moving to the Italian-speaking celebrity resort, made several trips to Rein’s nursing home. “When we asked her to choose a song for the kids to sing, she chose ‘Chanukah, O’ Chanukah.’ ”

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Kantor, who conversed with Rein in Yiddish and was there to celebrate her 111th and 112th birthdays, said that she once related that she received a blessing from a rabbi for a long life. The rabbi presided over her funeral.

According to news reports, Rein passed away peacefully in her sleep a few weeks before her 113th birthday. She was born into a prosperous family in Upper Silesia, now a part of Poland, in 1897, but immigrated to Brazil with her husband in 1938 after Germany enacted anti-Jewish laws. During World War II, her father succumbed to disease, while her mother perished in a concentration camp.

Not long after moving to South America, Rein found herself widowed. She remarried in 1949, and moved to Switzerland in 1964 for health reasons. Her second husband passed away in 1973.

Rein, who had no children and no relatives in her adopted country, moved into the nursing home in 2001.

She reportedly held the record as the oldest person in Switzerland since September 2006, and the oldest Swiss citizen in history since June 2008.

“This woman saw so much, and was an inspiration to all who met her,” said Kantor. “We’re all honored to have known her.”