Holocaust and Survival (or, Auschwitz vs. Babi Yar)

Last updated on: February 18, 2017 at 3:25 pm By Jane the Actuary

About 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust. This figure is sometimes cited as “between 5 and 6 million” because of the differences between known deaths and the results of estimates and calculations (see Wikipedia’s discussion of totals). Virtually the whole of the Jewish population of Poland, the Baltics, and those parts of the Soviet Union occupied by the Nazis were swept away, utterly annihilated. For example, as you’ll recall from my post the other day, less than 3% of Polish Jews... Read more

What you don’t know about that $89,000 drug

Last updated on: February 18, 2017 at 8:20 am By Jane the Actuary

Well, what you probably won’t know, unless you’re a diligent reader of Fortune or spent some time trying to find more information. The headline news is this: a new drug for Duchene muscular dystrophy is on the market, deflazacort, and this is being hailed as “the first drug in the United States approved for use by patients who are 5 years or older with DMD, regardless of genetic mutation.” The catch? This drug, which had been available abroad at a... Read more

What would an Arab-majority state of Israel look like?

Last updated on: February 17, 2017 at 8:54 am By Jane the Actuary

That’s the issue with the “one-state solution,” isn’t it? The Arabs, predominantly Muslim, wouldn’t necessarily form a majority right away (depending, too, on whether Gaza and those living in “refugee camps” in Jordan, or otherwise living abroad, are permitted to return), but are presumed to inevitably outbreed the Jews in the country to such a degree that in a generation or two, they will outnumber the Jews. Then what? The truism is “you can have Jewish state, or a democratic... Read more

Why the immigration-raid fear? Thank facebook and twitter

Last updated on: February 17, 2017 at 7:20 am By Jane the Actuary

Earlier this week, the newspaper was full of articles like this one: “Trump rhetoric has created ‘atmosphere of terror’ for immigrants, advocate says,” which reported that Chicago’s enforcement office made 235 arrests across six states — Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas and Missouri — during an operation that began Feb. 4 and concluded Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said. Forty-eight of those arrests occurred in the Chicago area. For immigrants still shaken by President Donald Trump’s... Read more

More to the story: a “heroic” 5th grade basketball team?

Last updated on: February 15, 2017 at 4:09 pm By Jane the Actuary

In today’s Tribune (originally from the Washington Post): “Fifth-grade Catholic youth team forfeits season rather than kick girls off.” The story: For several years, a Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball team in New Jersey had included a pair of girls. But recently the squad, now in the fifth grade, was presented with a difficult choice: Drop the girls, per the archdiocese’s rules, or forfeit the season. The team’s decision was unanimous. It was also courageous and inspiring. Before a game... Read more

“Separate and unequal” school-funding discrimination? Not so fast!

Last updated on: February 15, 2017 at 9:28 am By Jane the Actuary

The Chicago Public Schools, and its CEO Forrest Claypool, in a long-running battle to get more pension bail-out money from the state, has now filed a lawsuit, alleging unequal state funding and claiming that this is racial discrimination because of the disproportionate number of students who are “of color” (that is, black or Hispanic) in Chicago public schools. (See today’s Tribune.) What’s going on here? Illinois Policy rebuts the claim that CPS children are being treated unfairly. In all of... Read more

From the Library, Under the Sun

Last updated on: February 13, 2017 at 10:43 pm By Jane the Actuary

This is a movie, not a book. Here’s the premise: a Russian filmmaker, Vitaly Mansky, gets permission from/invited by the North Koreans to film a movie there, a “day in the life” that purports to be the experiences of a typical family as the 8 year old girl joins the Children’s Union (Young Pioneers-equivalent). The Norks dictate the script and checked the footage to ensure that only the acceptable bits were retained, but they filmed before and after the “official”... Read more

Is doctoring a “job Americans won’t do”?

Last updated on: February 12, 2017 at 9:20 pm By Jane the Actuary

Or, by tight medical-school admissions, high tuition rates, and the long hours of residency, have we made it into one? Among the innumerable articles on the dreadful effects of Trump’s temporary 7-country entry ban is this one from the Chicago Tribune, “Travel ban uncertainty worries hospitals, med students as Match Day nears,” which starts with the human-interest angle of a Sudanese-trained doctor worrying that the ban will prevent him from getting his hoped-for residency in the United States. Now, the... Read more

Next family history destination: Zion Lutheran Church

Last updated on: February 12, 2017 at 10:00 pm By Jane the Actuary

So the big fuss about the Budweiser commercial showing Adolphus Busch coming to St. Louis, overcoming all manner of trials and tribulations, got me thinking again about our prior genealogical research. Here’s what we’ve got so far: Emilie Schwarz was born in Germany in 1858, but came to the U.S. in 1870, landed in St. Louis, and married Wilhelm Witkoetter in 1885. Unfortunately, he died of tuberculosis in 1887, after her first child, Theresa, was born in 1886. Her second... Read more

For-profit hospitals – in Europe?

Last updated on: February 10, 2017 at 8:10 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yeah. I don’t know all that much but Deutsche Welle had an article about a doctor who refused to perform abortions, and sparked debate because,as chief physician for a hospital, decided that no abortions would be performed in that hospital – something that usually occurs in the context of church-run hospitals, not secular hospitals. And I’ll leave the whole abortion angle for later, because it requires a lot more context on the situation in Germany, and instead point to a statement... Read more