Recent storms and plunging temperatures have encrusted regions of Germany
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The weather has closed some schools and left residents without power as crews work to clear heavy tree branches from roads
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A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition
A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope
Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican
scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025
and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions
and a human-rights advocate whose passion was forged by her experiences in the Holocaust and by surviving the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Hessisch-Lichtenau concentration camps
Judith Magyar Isaacson ’65 signs her memoir “Seed of Sarah” after a class about the Holocaust taught by former Bates professor Steve Hochstadt
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Bates in 1965 and a master’s in mathematics at Bowdoin two years later
She taught math at Lewiston High School and then at Bates
where she became the dean of women in 1969 and dean of students in 1975
she was instrumental in ending the college’s unequal and antiquated codes of social conduct for men and women and in increasing extracurricular and athletic opportunities for female students
after discussing her Holocaust experiences with a group of students
Isaacson was moved to record those memories
her memoir Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor is an enduring inspiration of courage and resilience for young women and men
Isaacson received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Commencement 1994
so that none can forget — to say the unspeakable
so that all can hear — takes a voice of courage
touch the lives of not only your family and your colleagues but those countless others who read in your personal and professional life the inextinguishable force of human worth
Judith Isaacson receives the honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1994
Kirsten Terry Murphy ’07 wrote a story for The Bates Student about Isaacson’s induction into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame
Murphy wrote about Isaacson’s work as dean to dismantle the college’s notoriously unequal social rules that literally ran many pages for women and a few pages for men:
Isaacson could see that many of the codes of conduct at Bates were outdated
and quickly became an advocate for women’s rights at the school
She had children of her own in college at that point
18-year-old women had far more freedoms at home than at Bates,” explained Isaacson…
Isaacson resolved other important complaints from students
men and women did not have permission to enter dorms of the opposite sex
but she changed campus-housing rules to allow visitations
“I fought pretty hard for women to have athletic privileges,” she said
Judith Isaacson talks with members of the Women’s Council in 1970
the start of changes that would make Bates social life more equal for women
(Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)
she wrote an essay about that final Commencement as dean of students and about her uncertain
….carries his presidential paraphernalia with great dignity
I am proud to be following just behind him
Instead of stepping along the carpeted aisle in my academic gown
I see myself marching in a mile-long procession
This is my next-to-last official function at the College
as my eyes follow the members of the Class of 1977 making their solemn way to the front pews
Irving Isaacson ’36 and Judith Isaacson met after her liberation by American troops in 1945
they were photographed in 2000 by Phyllis Graber Jensen
a Holocaust scholar who taught at Bates from 1979 to 2006
had a long friendship with Isaacson that included a classroom relationship
Each year that he taught his course on the Holocaust
“It’s very important for Holocaust students to meet a survivor,” said Hochstadt in 2006
“And Bates students get to see what kind of survivor Judith is: a warm and humorous optimist.”
Hochstadt tells the Portland Press Herald that Isaacson “was an extraordinarily joyous person who could tell you about very sad things that happened to her
Hochstadt explains to the Sun Journal that Isaacson and Seed of Sarah expanded the narrative of the Holocaust to include women
Speaking to 125 students in the Filene lecture hall
a senior lecturer in the Bates theater department
became her “Hungarian mother in the United States.”
Seed of Sarah begins with this quote by a Hungarian poet
“I think that totally sums up her life,” Vecsey tells the Press Herald
“She really was so grateful to be alive and she shared that joy with everybody.”
photographed in 2009 by Phyllis Graber Jensen
Isaacson as a Calculus teacher in Lewiston High School in 1966
She spent half her time teaching us about math and the rest of the period about her experiences during the War
I think of her often and will take her experiences to my grave
I dare say she affected the arc of my life
I was a member of Women’s Council my junior and senior years (1968-1970) and had the priviledge of knowing and working with Dean Isaacson
She left an indelible impression on that college student
an impression that has stayed with me for a lifetime
I am incredibly sad to hear of her passing
“I had the privilege of knowing a truly great person,” when they are so obviously and unequivocally true
were truly a match made in heaven and a towering example for all of us of kindness
I was so fortunate to have been mentored in many ways by Dean Isaacson
She has certainly been one of my role models in my own career as a university student services administrator
You always let you know you were a valued individual
Very grateful that Dean Isaacson was my advisor
Had no idea how involved she was in changing the ridiculous parietals
Isaacson were close friends with my husband’s Aunt and Uncle
They lived just off campus on Nichols Street
where I had the privilege of meeting her and listening to fascinating stories of mutual survivors
I am so sorry to hear of Dean Isaacson’s passing
but happy she was able to enjoy a long life
but my most vivid memory of her is one I have thought of many times over the intervening years
As a junior I took a course in Jewish Culture
She came to speak to our class about the Holocaust
I have never forgotten the power of her words
nor of her ability to retain those memories but still experience the joy and happiness of life
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’94 got to hear her own words during a reading at the Lewiston Public Library by Katalin Vecsey
who read selections from Isaacson’s Seed of Sarah
a memoir published in 1990 that recounted her Holocaust experiences at the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Hessisch Lichtenau concentration camps
who like Isaacson is originally from Hungary
also read from Isaacson’s forthcoming sequel
to be published in German in a translation from English by Gerda Neu-Sokol
One story in the new memoir tells of Isaacson traveling to Hungary in 1977 to research Seed of Sarah and meeting an elderly man on a train
the man discovered the reason for Isaacson’s visit
Finally he haltingly revealed a secret never before shared with anyone: He had been a worker on the trains that brought Jews to the death camps
Von: Stefan Forbert
wird der A-44-Abschnitt zwischen den Anschlussstellen Hessisch Lichtenau-Ost und Waldkappel für den Verkehr freigegeben
Das teilte Hessen Mobil am Gründonnerstag mit.","url":"https://www.hna.de/lokales/witzenhausen/hessisch-lichtenau-ort62262/verkehr-auf-a44-zwischen-hessisch-lichtenau-ost-und-waldkappel-soll-ab-13-april-laufen-9737609.html"};c&&a.navigator.canShare(d)&&(c.style.display="",c.addEventListener("click",b=>{b.preventDefault(),a.setTimeout(function(){a.navigator.share(d)},0)}))}})(window,document);
Das teilte Hessen Mobil am Gründonnerstag mit
Um 10 Uhr soll vor dem Westportal des Tunnels Küchen die Freigabe-Feier stattfinden
Dazu werden die Staatssekretäre Steffen Bilger (CDU) aus dem Bundesverkehrsministerium und Mathias Samson (Grüne) vom Hessischen Verkehrsministerium sowie Hessen-Mobil-Präsident Burkhard Vieth erwartet
Der Verkehr soll dann auf dem dann dritten freigegebenen A-44-Teilstück ab dem Nachmittag laufen
Der Autobahnabschnitt ist 10,9 Kilometer lang und hat einschließlich Tunnnel 235 Millionen Euro gekostet
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