Dragon Enthusiast, Enjoyer of Things

They hate Israel because they're trying to be an ally to Arabs and Muslims, and they TAUGHT them to hate Israel and Jews

i especially think about this image a lot.

jews saw trump's muslim ban and immediately said "we've seen this before, this is disgusting. never again."

but when jews continue to make up the majority of victims of religious-based hate crimes despite being 2% of the population? when synagogues continue to require security cameras, police officers, and metal detectors? when jewish institutions continue to be regularly vandalized? when jews continue to be attacked in the streets? when jews continue to be afraid of being visibly jewish?

There are many stories from Terezin about the remarkable educators and youth leaders who dedicated themselves to helping children in the camp. One of these individuals was a woman named Irma Lauscher (Lauscherova in Czech), a teacher who secured a most precious gift for the children of Terezin.

Irma Lauscher’s Life Before Terezin

Irma was born in the Czech town of Heřmanův Městec in 1904, and moved to Prague with her family as a young teenager. After completing secondary school she attended Charles University in Prague, where she studied education, psychology, German and

French, ultimately graduating with a teaching degree. Irma then began working as a teacher and also joined a local Jewish youth movement called Techelet Lavan.

In 1932, Irma married Jiří Lauscher, who was also a member of Techelet Lavan. Both Irma and Jiří were staunch Zionists who longed to emigrate to the territory then known as Mandatory Palestine. However, not wanting to leave Irma’s widowed mother behind, they delayed their plans and remained in Prague. Their daughter Míchaela was born in 1936, and soon after Irma returned to teaching at an organization called the Jewish Religious Community (JRC).

She also taught at a Jewish school in Prague until the Nazis closed the school in 1942. Even after the Nazis forbade Jewish children to go to school, Irma continued to teach small groups of children in secret, usually in the apartments of local Jewish families. Some of Irma’s former students remembered her as a strict teacher with high standards, though also very fair, committed, and quick to assist her students. These qualities made her a highly respected teacher and would later prove invaluable to the children she taught at Terezin.

A Teacher in Terezin

Irma, Jiří, and Míchaela arrived in Terezin in December 1942, where Irma resumed her work as a teacher. In early 1943, Irma and some other prisoners formed a council of educators, who were determined to provide an education for children in Terezin. Irma began holding secret classes in which she taught children about Jewish history and traditions. One of these traditions was the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, also known as the “New Year of the Trees”. In modern times, many Jewish communities commemorate the holiday by planting trees.

Determined to uphold this tradition, even in Terezin, Irma took matters into her own hands. She took an immense risk and bribed one of the camp’s Czech guards to smuggle a small sapling into Terezin. The guard managed to secure a sapling from a silver maple tree, tucked it in his boot, and safely delivered it to Irma.

Soon after, when no Nazi soliders were around, Irma and her young students gathered in front of a large building in the center of town and planted the tiny sapling. Once planted, the children watered the tree with their own rations. At the end of the ceremony, a rabbi said a special blessing over the children and the tree, praying that they would one day be free to plant trees in Czechoslovakia, the land of Israel, and all over the world.

As the weeks passed, the children continued to nurture the tree using their own precious water rations. Against all odds, the fragile young tree survived the war, but tragically most of the children who planted and cared for the tree were deported and died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Life After Liberation

By a miracle, Irma, Jiří, and Míchaela were all spared from the transports and remained in Terezin until the camp was liberated in May 1945. After liberation, they returned to Prague and began to rebuild their lives. Irma and her daughter both spent time in a sanatorium, and Irma decided not to return to school due to ongoing health problems. Instead, she found work as a private teacher, while Jiří obtained a job at the Israeli Embassy in Prague.

Life in post-war Czechoslovakia became increasingly difficult for Irma and her family after the Communist takeover in 1948. The Communist government continued to spread

anti-Semitic propaganda, which was one of the main reasons why Irma, Jiří, and

Míchaela attempted to flee the country several times. On their final attempt in 1953, the entire family was arrested and sent to prison.

After their release, Irma and her husband returned to their previous jobs, and Irma also wrote articles for the Gazette of Jewish Religious Communities. In the 1960s, they began working with a German volunteer organization called AktionSühnezeichen (Action Reconciliation for Peace) to educate young people about the Holocaust and the Terezin ghetto. As part of their work, they returned to Terezin many times over the years in spite of the trauma their whole family endured there.

Irma and the Terezin Children’s Tree

During these trips to Terezin, Irma would return to visit her tree, which thrived and over the years grew into a towering silver maple tree, nearly 60 feet in height. A teacher to the very end, Irma dedicated the rest of her life to educating young people about Terezin, until she passed away in June 1985 at the age of 81.

As for the Children’s Tree, it survived until 2003, when it was destroyed in a flood. But the tree lives on, for over the years, the tree produced many saplings which were planted in Israel and in the United States. Young silver maples took root in Jerusalem, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, and most recently, outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. Several Terezin survivors and descendents of survivors attended the ceremony in New York City, including Holocaust survivor Fred Terna, who helped to water the tree as a child in Terezin.

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Hi!

I would just point out that them being a jew puts you on equal playing fields. You're both jews. Here are some things which back you up.

1) Most jews agree with you. No group is ever a monolith, so you go with what the majority says. In every minority that has an associated slur, most people don't want non-members to use that slur, but there are always those who are are fine with it. In every other case its accepted (by non-racists) to go with what the majority say. Why is it different for jews?

2) if we entertain the idea of leftists using it in a "non antisemitic" way, its easier to avoid saying it full stop, than to ask every single jew around you if they're cool with it or just risk offending most jews. Why do you want to make things harder for jews?

X

As someone from a hot country that's regularly on fire, here's some tips:

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND! WATER! IS! YOUR! FRIEND! You can transfer SO much heat into this bad boy! You cannot cool down without water!

Wrists under the cold tap. Splash your face and the back of your neck. Fan yourself.

In some countries you can buy a little handeld fan with a water sprayer.

Damp tea towel around the neck. Stick an ice pack in there on hotter days.

Half fill a water bottle with water, stick in freezer. If you use a bottle with a straw, make sure it's lying on its side with the straw side up and out of the water. When frozen top up the rest of the way with tap water and off you go.

Desperate to cool off? Wet T-shirt. Sit in front of a fan. This will nuke it, just don't get hypothermia and don't fall asleep like this.

Cold showers are also your friend in summer. Some people get psyched up by these. Personally, I sleep like a baby, so I'm good to have them before bed. Just keep in mind that it takes a bit of time for the cool to circulate, so your body will tell you that you're colder than you actually are. I find that when I have cold showers I need to step out of the spray when I think I'm cold... I'll just wait, and thirty seconds later the temperature has evened out and I actually need to step under again. Rinse and repeat until you maintain coolness even after stepping out for a bit.

If you can't do cold showers, turn the cold shower on anyway and just stick your arms under. When they're cold, lift your arms up above your head. The sensation of cool blood draining into your body is fucking weird and kinda unpleasant but less unpleasant than being hot.

Feet in a tub of water with ice. Blood naturally flows to your extremities when hot, so take advantage of this. If you don't have a tub of ice water, sticking a wet rag on your feet in front of the fan works too, it's the less powerful version of the wet T-shirt.

Drinks lots of water but make sure that water has electrolytes as well. Stay in the shade.

Keep air circulating. Fans don't actually cool rooms down, they just help transfer heat from your body to the moisture on your skin or the air via evaporative cooling.

Block north facing windows early in the morning so the sun doesn't get in. If you're in the northern hemisphere, this is opposite for you. Keep in mind that if your home is brick, the bricks will still heat up and slowly release heat into your home even after the sun goes down so this will only do so much.

If it's hotter inside than outside, close all your windows but two, making sure they're on opposite sides of the house/unit you're in. Point a fan out of one window, making sure that the doors between the rooms with the open windows are all open. This will help create a mini pressure system in your home, pulling cooler air in and pushing the hotter air out via the fan. Bonus points if you can get that fan high up where the hot air rises; even within a single room the top is much hotter than the air by the floor. Adjust the amount of open windows based on how many fans you have, but generally you want more windows with fans open than windows without fans to keep the pressure correct.

Obviously, use your common sense for these. Not everything WILL work for you, just use the stuff that does and adjust what needs to be adjusted. Some of these will be impossible to use in the workplace but others you can still use. Others are best used at home. If humidity impacts your ability to use any of these, get a dehumidifier if that's an option, or use more ice instead of evaporation.