In Memoriam: Judith Magyar Isaacson, 1925-2015

Judith Magyar Isaacson, an educator, author, and human rights advocate died on November 10. She was 90 years old.

Isaacson was born in Kaposvar, Hungary. As a young women she was taken from her home and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She later was used as a slave laborer in an underground munitions factory in Hessisch Lichtenau, Germany. After liberation by Allied troops, the young woman met an American OSS officer and they were married in December 1945.

After raising a family in the United States, Isaacson earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, at the age of 40. She was awarded a master’s degree in mathematics at Bates two years later. Isaacson then taught mathematics at Lewiston High School. In 1969, she was named dean of women at Bates College. Six years later, Isaacson was promoted to dean of students. She retired from Bates in 1978.

In 1990, Isaacson published her memoir Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor (University of Illinois Press, 1990). She was awarded an honorary doctorate at Bates College in 1994.