Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born Joan Ruth Bader, was a Jewish-American jurist, law professor, pioneering advocate, federal judge and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served on the Supreme Court from 1993 until her death in 2020, becoming the second woman and the first Jewish woman to sit on the Court. Long before she became a justice, she was one of the central legal architects of the American struggle for gender equality, through academic teaching, legal writing, the founding of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and carefully chosen arguments before the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg did not build her influence mainly through thunderous speeches, but through precise, patient and disciplined legal work. She understood that lasting social change is often built step by step: one case, one precedent, one phrase, one majority opinion or one dissent. Throughout her career she showed that gender discrimination harms not only women, but also men, children, families and public confidence in the law. In doing so, she became a major figure in American legal history and a modern Jewish symbol of learning, persistence, justice, public responsibility and institutional repair.

Jewish childhood in Brooklyn

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, into a middle-class Jewish family. Her father, Nathan Bader, had immigrated to the United States from Odesa, and her mother, Celia Amster Bader, came from a Jewish family rooted in Kraków. The family belonged to East Midwood Jewish Center, a large Conservative Jewish congregation in Brooklyn. Ginsburg’s Jewishness was not merely a biographical detail; it gave her a language of memory, responsibility and moral duty, even though she was not religiously observant in an Orthodox sense.

Her older sister, Marylin, died of meningitis when Ruth was a toddler. In the family Ruth was nicknamed Kiki, but at school she began using her middle name to distinguish her from other girls named Joan. Her mother Celia played a decisive role in shaping her life. She took her daughter to the library, encouraged academic excellence and taught independence. Celia herself had been an excellent student, but because of family and gender expectations she could not pursue higher education. That experience followed Ginsburg throughout her life: female talent blocked by social norms.

Celia struggled with cancer and died the day before Ruth’s high school graduation from James Madison High School. The loss was deeply personal, but it also symbolized for Ginsburg the gap between ability and opportunity. She later described her mother as one of the strongest influences on her life, not because Celia had been a public figure, but because she had given her daughter discipline, love of learning and the understanding that barriers are not proof of lesser worth.

Cornell, Martin Ginsburg and an unusual partnership

Ginsburg attended Cornell University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1954. At Cornell she met Martin D. Ginsburg, a law student who would become a respected tax lawyer and professor. They married shortly after her graduation. Their marriage became known as an unusually equal partnership for its time: a relationship of mutual respect, shared parenting and professional support in a world that often treated women’s careers as secondary to their husbands’.

After the birth of their daughter Jane, Martin was diagnosed with cancer. Ruth cared for him and their infant daughter, attended law school, helped him with his studies and continued building her own career. This experience was not only a personal story of family devotion; it formed part of her practical understanding that women’s freedom also depends on changes in men’s roles within the family. Later she expressed the point directly: only when fathers are equal parents will women be truly free.

The couple had two children: Jane C. Ginsburg, who became a professor of intellectual property law at Columbia Law School, and James Steven Ginsburg, founder of a classical-music recording company. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010 after 56 years of marriage. Their relationship became part of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s public image: not only a jurist who demanded equality in law, but a woman who lived an equal partnership at home.

Legal education in a world that resisted women

In 1956 Ginsburg entered Harvard Law School. She was one of only nine women in a class of about five hundred students. Women in law were then treated as exceptions, and sometimes as people taking places thought to belong to men. Ginsburg did not merely survive that environment; she excelled in it.

When Martin took a job in New York, Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School. She became the first woman to serve on two major law reviews, the Harvard Law Review and the Columbia Law Review, and graduated from Columbia in 1959 at the top of her class. Yet even after extraordinary academic achievement, she struggled to find work. Judges and law firms rejected her because she was a woman, a mother and a Jew.

These rejections were not incidental. They became the lived material from which her legal understanding was built. Ginsburg did not approach gender equality as an abstract problem; she personally experienced a world in which talent, grades and persistence were not enough when institutions were structured by prejudice. Eventually she clerked for Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and from there began her professional path.

Academia, Sweden and a comparative view of equality

In the early 1960s, Ginsburg worked with Columbia Law School’s Project on International Procedure. She learned Swedish and co-authored a book with jurist Anders Bruzelius on civil procedure in Sweden. Her time in Sweden affected her deeply. She encountered a society in which women participated in the legal profession at much higher rates than in the United States, and women combined careers and family in ways that seemed nearly impossible in America at the time.

She then taught at Rutgers Law School from 1963 to 1972. There too she encountered unequal pay compared with male colleagues and became involved in efforts to secure fair compensation. In 1970 she co-founded the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, the first law journal in the United States devoted to women’s rights. This was an important step in creating a new legal field: not merely individual cases, but an organized body of knowledge about gender discrimination.

From 1972 to 1980 she taught at Columbia Law School, becoming the first woman to receive tenure there. At Columbia she taught and wrote on sex discrimination, helped produce innovative teaching materials, and trained a generation of lawyers to see equality not as a slogan but as a constitutional, institutional and practical question.

The ACLU Women’s Rights Project and legal strategy

In 1972 Ginsburg co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU. In 1973 she became the project’s general counsel. Under her leadership, the project participated in hundreds of cases involving sex and gender discrimination. Ginsburg did not seek merely to change one law at a time; she sought to change the way courts understood gender discrimination.

Her strategy was measured and sophisticated. She chose cases that would allow the Court to see how laws that appeared to protect women often reinforced dependence on men. At times she chose male plaintiffs, to show that gender stereotypes harmed both sexes. In this way she gradually built a broader constitutional foundation for equality.

Among the central cases in which she worked were Reed v. Reed, in which the Supreme Court first recognized that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to women; Frontiero v. Richardson, involving benefits for spouses of service members; Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, in which she represented a widower denied benefits available to widows; Craig v. Boren, which advanced intermediate scrutiny for gender classifications; and Duren v. Missouri, involving women’s participation in jury service. Together, these cases changed American law.

Federal judge on the D.C. Circuit

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She served there until her elevation to the Supreme Court in 1993. During these years she became known as a careful, precise and relatively moderate judge, able to work with colleagues whose legal views differed from her own. Among those colleagues was Antonin Scalia, who would later become her close friend on the Supreme Court even though the two often stood on opposite sides of major legal questions.

Her years on the appeals court strengthened her standing as a credible Supreme Court nominee. She was not seen as a noisy revolutionary, but as a systematic lawyer with academic, litigation and judicial experience. The combination was rare: someone who knew how to build legal theory, argue a case, teach students and write a judicial opinion.

When President Bill Clinton sought a Supreme Court nominee in 1993, Ginsburg was presented as a figure who could combine commitment to equality with institutional moderation. The Senate confirmed her by a vote of 96 to 3, and she took her judicial oath on August 10, 1993.

The Supreme Court: caution, equality and cumulative influence

Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 27 years. She was the second woman and the first Jewish woman on the Court, and after the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor she was for a time its only woman. Her presence itself carried historical meaning: a Jewish woman, the daughter of immigrants, who began her career facing closed doors, now sat at one of the most important legal institutions in the world.

Her judicial approach was generally measured. She preferred gradual development, clear writing, respect for institution and precedent, and persuasion over proclamation. Even as part of the Court’s liberal wing, she did not treat judicial writing as mere political rhetoric. For her, a good opinion had to speak also to colleagues who disagreed, to legislators, to lawyers and to the public.

Over time, especially as the balance of the Court changed, Ginsburg also became known for powerful dissents. Her dissents were not meant only to register disagreement; they sought to leave a map for future generations, lawmakers and advocates. In that sense, her dissents continued the legal strategy she had used as an advocate: even a loss could become one stage in the building of future change.

Major opinions and dissents

One of the opinions most closely associated with Ginsburg is United States v. Virginia in 1996. She wrote the majority opinion holding that Virginia could not exclude women from the Virginia Military Institute, VMI. She required the state to provide an exceedingly persuasive justification for any sex-based classification, and made clear that a separate program for women was not a substitute for genuine equality when a unique public institution was closed to them.

In Olmstead v. L.C. in 1999, she wrote the majority opinion holding that unjustified isolation of people with disabilities in institutions could constitute discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The decision broadened the meaning of equality beyond gender, to the right of people with disabilities to live in community rather than be excluded from it.

Her dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear in 2007 became emblematic. The Court rejected Lilly Ledbetter’s pay discrimination claim under a strict reading of the time limit for filing. Ginsburg argued that many women do not know in real time that they are being paid less than male colleagues, and called on Congress to correct the law. Congress did so through the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed in 2009. It was a clear case in which a dissent became a catalyst for legislation.

In her dissent in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, she opposed the invalidation of a central mechanism of the Voting Rights Act. She argued that discarding a working tool that prevents discrimination is like throwing away an umbrella in a rainstorm because one is not getting wet. Here too, her legal writing became a wider public language about the fragility of civil rights.

Judaism, justice and identity

Ginsburg was a non-Orthodox Jew, but her Jewish identity remained deeply present in her public life. She spoke about inequality in certain Jewish rituals as one reason she had moved away from traditional religious practice, yet she maintained a clear connection to Jewish heritage and values. In her chambers she displayed the Hebrew verse “Zedek, zedek, tirdof” — “Justice, justice shall you pursue” — as a reminder of heritage and professional duty.

She was the first Jewish woman on the Supreme Court and continued a Jewish-American legal tradition that included figures such as Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo and Abe Fortas. Yet Ginsburg added a distinctive dimension to that tradition: she connected Jewish memory, immigrant experience, women’s struggle for equality and the law’s duty to expand the meaning of the words “We the People.”

In 2015 she published, with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, an essay on heroic and visionary women in the Passover story. The choice to read the Exodus through the actions of women beautifully reflected her path: rereading an inherited tradition not to discard it, but to reveal agency, courage and partnership that had been pushed to the margins.

Friendship with Scalia and the culture of disagreement

One of the distinctive features of Ginsburg’s public image was her close friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia. The two disagreed on almost every major constitutional question, yet shared a love of opera, humor, mutual respect and deep personal friendship. Their relationship became a symbol of principled disagreement that does not erase the humanity of the other side.

That friendship also found cultural expression in the comic opera Scalia/Ginsburg, which dealt with the two justices and their bond. For Ginsburg, opera was not merely a side interest; she loved the drama, the music and the ability of art to express great human conflicts. She even appeared in non-speaking roles in operas and belonged to a cultural world broader than law.

Publicly, her relationship with Scalia highlighted a central part of her institutional outlook: a court is not only a battlefield of winning and losing, but an institution in which people must continue to work together even when they profoundly disagree. In a polarized political world, that message became an important part of her legacy.

Becoming a cultural symbol

In her later years, Ginsburg became an American cultural symbol. The nickname Notorious RBG, a playful tribute to the stage name of rapper Notorious B.I.G., turned her into an icon among young people, feminists, lawyers and civil-rights activists. Her image appeared in books, films, television programs, dolls, posters, costumes and popular merchandise.

The 2018 documentary RBG and the feature film On the Basis of Sex brought her story to an even wider audience. The children’s book I Dissent introduced her to young readers as a child, student, lawyer and judge who was not afraid to disagree when justice required it. In this way, Ginsburg became not only an important justice but an educational figure: someone who explained to children and adults that dissent can be an act of fidelity to principle.

The symbolism surrounding Ginsburg does not always reflect the full complexity of her legal record, which was often more moderate and careful than the popular image suggests. Yet the fact that an elderly constitutional judge became a cultural icon reveals the public hunger for figures who embody persistence, wisdom, integrity and equality.

Illness, endurance and death

Ginsburg faced several bouts with cancer, including colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. Despite demanding treatments and surgeries, she continued working at a remarkable pace and for long periods did not miss oral arguments. She also became known for her exercise routine, which became part of the public mythology around her.

In her later years, some liberal scholars and activists called on her to retire during Barack Obama’s presidency, so that a like-minded successor could be appointed. Ginsburg chose to remain as long as she believed she could perform her duties. After her death, that decision became part of public discussion about institutions, political strategy and judicial legacy, but it does not diminish the magnitude of her life’s work.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, in Washington, D.C., from complications of pancreatic cancer, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery beside her husband Martin. After her death, she lay in repose at the Supreme Court and became the first woman and first Jew to lie in state at the United States Capitol. The crowds who came to honor her testified that for many people she was not only a judge, but a symbol of legal and moral steadfastness.

Recognition, awards and commemoration

Ginsburg received many awards and honorary degrees, including induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award, the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture, and numerous honors from legal, academic and cultural institutions around the world. She donated the Berggruen Prize money to nonprofit organizations, including institutions working in education, law, health and coexistence.

After her death, institutions, awards, ships, schools and buildings were named in her honor, including a residence hall at Cornell University and a public hospital in Brooklyn. She appeared on a United States postage stamp, and the Supreme Court held a special memorial session in her honor. These commemorations reflect not only personal affection, but recognition that her influence crossed the boundaries of court, party and generation.

Her legacy continues in legal debates over equality, voting rights, women’s rights, discrimination, disability, religious freedom and the role of law in a democratic society. Even as precedents change and public struggles continue, Ginsburg’s legal and civic language remains a source of inspiration.

Why this legacy belongs in Moreshet

Ruth Bader Ginsburg merits inclusion in Moreshet because her story connects a Jewish heritage of learning and justice with one of the most important legal struggles of the modern world: the expansion of equal protection under law. The daughter of a Jewish immigrant family, raised in a Jewish community in Brooklyn and shaped by memory, responsibility and education, she became one of the most influential jurists in the United States and a global symbol of gender equality, perseverance and excellence.

Moreshet.com documents Ginsburg because Jewish and Israeli heritage includes Jews in the Diaspora whose work shaped the institutions of justice, culture and liberty in the wider world. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s place in Moreshet rests on the way she used law to dismantle barriers, her contribution to the rights of women and men alike, her Jewish-American presence on the Supreme Court, and the proof her life offers that study, precision, courage and public service can change the possibilities available to entire generations.