24 September 2020 Jewish News
www.jewishnews.co.uk
17
Ruth Bader Ginsberg 1933-2020 / News
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SHE WAS A CREDIT TO JEWISH PEOPLE BARONESS (RUTH) DEECH DBE LAWYER
Being sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in 1993
A hug in 2015 for Obama, on his way to address Congress
state in 150 years, the honour reserved for only the most significant and revered public figures, including President Abraham Lincoln. Her coffin is on the Lincoln catafalque. To many she was ‘wonder woman’, so it was only fitting that Israeli actress Gal Gadot – who plays the Wonder Woman role in Hollywood blockbusters – joined in the tributes, tweeting: “Rest in Peace RBG. Thank you for everything you brought to this world.” Former US president Barack Obama said she was “a warrior” who “inspired the generations who followed her, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful leaders in the land”. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her
death “a devastating loss for our country”, adding: “Her memory is already a blessing. May it also be a call to continue her work for justice and equality under the law.” Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, paid tribute to “a brilliantly clever woman”, while David Lammy MP, the first Black Briton to go to Harvard Law School, said Ginsburg was “present in all the important cases of the last few decades… I was inspired by some of her judgments”. He said she was instrumental in getting women into the armed forces, giving widows rights, and supporting samesex marriage, while maintaining conservative friends on the Supreme Court. “She believed in civility and decency – a lesson we need today.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Jewishness was intrinsic to her standing as a great judge and an upholder of justice. The sixth Jewish US Supreme Court Justice, and only the second woman, she took to heart the exhortation of Shoftim: “Justice justice shalt thou pursue”, and made the Jewish people proud of her. The contribution she made to equality before the law will endure. The pioneering Jewish woman judge is an icon in our history – think of Deborah, and, nearer to home, Dame Rose Heilbron and Baroness (Rosalyn) Higgins, former president of the International Court of Justice. RBG, as she was affectionately known, combined transformative judicial qualities with motherhood and a strong and supportive marriage to a husband who shouldered many of the household burdens.
It is said that she lost her faith when at the age of 17 she was not allowed by Jewish law to join a minyan to mourn her mother’s death. No doubt she found that the traditional Jewish view of women was hard to reconcile with her drive for equality of the sexes. RBG rose above that and became a role model for women of all persuasions. She fought for equality not by protest or disobedience but by reliance on the US Constitution, which she interpreted with skills that a Talmudic scholar would recognise. Whether it was establishing an equal right for widowers to receive the benefits accorded to widows; or women to train for military service; or the legalisation of gay marriage, she took on the opposition with meticulous but impassioned legal argument, fortified by her own experiences in overcoming the obstacles put in her way as a female lawyer. She did the Jewish people credit. May her memory be a blessing.
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