Temple Beth David

Special December Event

Tuesday December 7

7:00 – 8:30 pm

Featuring Betty Baker’s “Flight to the Goldeneh Medina”

A fictionalized account of the author’s mother-in-law’s tale. Fagela Rivka had been just 12 years old on arriving at Ellis Island with a sign hanging from her neck that read “Fanny Jacobs, Rochester NY,” which was to be her new name and home. What crises had led to the girl’s solo departure from Lithuania? What must that arduous journey have entailed?  But it is also true, for the stories are a quilt of the very real experiences of her Jewish immigrant parents and her many relatives—the mishpocha—living on Joseph Avenue in the 1930s.

Betty Baker (z”l) and her family were long-time members of the Temple Beth David family.

7:00 – 7:45 pm Discussion focusing on Betty’s story

Betty’s children Ken, Jeff, and Barb will join us.

7:50 – 8:30 pm Ken Baker will lead a discussion about how the diaspora has directly impacted each of our lives. Ken will open the discussion to anyone who might like to share something of their own families’ history.

“I know Mom would be kvelling with happiness at the thought that her short story is being shared with the Temple Beth David community.” – Ken Baker

Read Betty’s story here Flight to the Goldeneh Medina, BB Nov 2005, edited by KB July 2021

Left to right: 1905 photograph of Fannie (Fagela) Baker as a young woman, and  (Fannie’s daughter-in-law) Betty Baker, at age 76, a couple of years before she passed.