Judith Magyar Isaacson

Judith Magyar Isaacson (July 3, 1925 – November 10, 2015) was a Hungarian-American educator, university administrator, speaker, and author.

Born in Hungary into a Jewish family, Isaacson was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp with her mother and aunt in July 1944, where she spent eight months in forced labor in an underground munitions plant in Hessisch Lichtenau. After liberation, she married a United States intelligence officer and moved to his hometown of Lewiston, Maine. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics in Maine colleges in the mid-1960s and taught at Lewiston High School and Bates College, serving as dean of women and dean of students at the latter institution. Her 1990 memoir, Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor, inspired a 1995 electronic chamber opera and a 1998 experimental film.

The recipient of numerous awards and three honorary degrees, Isaacson was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2004.

Early life and deportation to Auschwitz Born Judit Magyar in Kaposvár, Hungary, she was the daughter of Jeno and Rózsi (Rose) Magyar. Her plans to study literature at the Sorbonne While her grandmothers and one aunt were immediately murdered in the gas chamber,

The three women remained at Auschwitz until late August 1944,

After earning her bachelor's degree, she began teaching math at Lewiston High School and chaired that school's department of mathematics. She revisited her Hungarian hometown to conduct research for the book, which was published in 1990 as Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor.

The book was later translated into German as Freut Euch Ihr Lebenden, Freut Euch (Rejoice, You Who Live, Rejoice) and into Hungarian as Koszonet Az Eletert (Thank You for Life). Isaacson read portions of her book on the film soundtrack. and contributed a chapter on her life experiences to the 1999 book A Heart of Wisdom: Making the Jewish journey from midlife through the elder years, published by Jewish Lights Publishing.

Memberships She was a member of the Bowdoin College Board of Overseers from 1984 to 1996. She was also a board member of the Auburn Public Library, Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC), and the CMMC School of Nursing and Health Professions.

Honors and awards Isaacson received honorary degrees from Bates College (Doctor of Laws, 1994), Colby College, and the University of New England.

She was a recipient of the Deborah Morton Award for outstanding women from Westbrook College in 1993, the Gordon S. Hargraves Preservation of Freedom Prize from Bowdoin College in 1996, the Maryann Hartman Award for distinguished Maine women from the University of Southern Maine, and the Remember Me Award from the Maine Healthcare Association. In 2003 she was honored as one of the Women of Distinction by the Kennebec Council of the Girl Scouts. In 2004 she was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame.

In 1987 she was a guest of the city of Hessisch Lichtenau, where she had been a forced laborer in a munitions plant during the war, on the occasion of their dedication of a monument to victims of the Holocaust.

Personal life Despite her wartime experience, Isaacson was "a warm and humorous optimist". Bates Holocaust professor Steve Hochstadt described her as "an extraordinarily joyous person who could tell you about very sad things that happened to her, her relatives and her friends, but who was able to retain joy in life". She was fluent in five languages: Hungarian, German, French, Latin, and English.

She and her husband Irving Isaacson, who survived her, had two sons and a daughter. She died on November 10, 2015, at the age of 90 at her home in Auburn, Maine.