Biography

Laura Lee Gold is President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. She has engaged in genealogical research since about 1995 when she received her mother’s family trees from a cousin.  A former debater at California State University Northridge and qualifier for the National Debate Tournament, she is now retired from the California Attorney General’s Office where she worked as a trial lawyer defending the State of California and appeared before the California Court of Appeals and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal. She is a skilled public speaker and has made genealogy presentations to genealogical societies, synagogues and Jewish women’s organizations, coordinated genealogy classes, and led tours of Jewish Los Angeles.

THE ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION EXPERIENCE

The Ellis Island Immigration Experience presentation will cover the entire Ellis Island immigration experience from steerage passengers’ transit to the island, screening for diseases and mental conditions, detention for medical reasons, the public health doctors who treated people, the hospital, surgical center and psychopathic ward. Records give clues to whether immigrants were detained for medical reasons. There may even have been an administrative appeal with a hearing and legal representation. The story of how an ancestor experienced detention and navigated entry into America may be your family’s history. Most passed through without any glitches and all kept their name as written on the ship’s manifest. Available records and photographs allow you to tell your ancestors’ story. If your ancestor was a radical they may have still passed through unscathed but, as a result of the Palmer raids in the 1920s, anarchists and communists were deported through Ellis Island. Finally, the immigration center closed and was abandoned. That is how I saw Ellis Island, derelict with deteriorating walls. Today, Ellis Island is honored by the National Park Service and you can understand your family’s immigration experience.

Club Donation

PLEASE provide your 2026 membership donation!

Your tax-deductible membership donation is what allows us to exist. It pays for rent to the JCC and allows us to bring experts from all over the world to speak to us. It also gives you access to our program recordings and our growing genealogy library.

Please do what you can to help, including inviting family, friends, colleagues, etc. to come to SAJGS monthly programs and join!

You can, of course, provide a little more for your annual donation to cover SAJGS operations costs. You can also donate any time for any amount to SAJGS Programs, Library, Operations. Your dues payments / donations can be paid by credit/debit card, cash or check during our monthly program meetings. You can also mail a check or use a credit/debit card from home. Click the button below for more information.

Annual Membership Dues

Individual $36

Couple $50

Student $18