Bertha Baer Cantor

South Bend — Bertha Baer Cantor passed away peacefully on September 27th in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was 104 years old. Born to Esther (Hoeltzel) and Bernard Baer in Frankfurt Germany on August 15, 1914 on the eve of World War I. The Baer family immigrated to South Bend through Ellis Island seven years later.
She had a love of family, was beloved by many and touched the lives of people who knew her in her long term residences in Philadelphia and Silver Spring, Maryland. She was a volunteer reader to the blind, a substitute teacher to handicapped and learning disabled children and a board member at the Hospital facility that cared for her husband who had Alzheimer’s disease. She was a faithful caregiver to her husband, Sidney, for many years. She traveled the world with her husband throughout Europe, India, Israel and Southeast Asia.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Sidney, and her brothers Fred Baer of South Bend and Max Baer of Washington, DC. Mrs. Cantor is survived by her children: Diane (Harold), Michael and David (Mary); their children: Jeremy Fishbein (Alicia), Aaron Fishbein, Anna Cantor, Josh Cantor and Isabella Cantor; and great-grandchildren Alisa Meraz-Fishbein, Gabriela Meraz-Fishbein and Celyn Munro. Funeral services will be Wednesday at 3:00pm in the chapel at the Hebrew Orthodox Cemetery off Calhoun St. south of Jefferson Blvd., Mishawaka, IN, with Rabbi Karen Companez, of Temple Beth El, officiating. Memorial donations may be made in her memory to the Jewish Federation, 3202 Shalom Way, South Bend, IN 46615.