Image by facebook

By Ari Feldman June 23, 2017

Frances Bertetta, a 98-year-old woman from the San Francisco area, proved that it’s never too late to find your spiritual home — and a little luck doesn’t hurt.

Bertetta originally fell in love with Judaism more than 70 years ago, when she attended the bar mitzvah of a friend’s son.

Her love of Judaism was reignited three years ago when she won tickets to High Holiday services at a San Francisco synagogue through a raffle at the JCC. After that, she just kept going back, and began the journey to becoming a Jew.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“I never forgot that little boy reciting his Hebrew,” she told the Jewish News of Northern California. “The Catholic Church is very cold and you don’t question anything. We kids were scared to death of the priests and nuns. The rabbi was walking around and talking to everybody.”

Though she’s officially converted, she still learns as much as she can about Jewish tradition and history.

“Everything is interesting. I just love it all,” Bertetta said. “The more I learn, the more I love it. The hardest thing is learning Hebrew. Talking to the rabbis and the cantor and my mentor was really great. I love the discussions. With Jews there’s always discussion.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount