Jewniverse

How Anti-Semitism Helped Ruth Bader Ginsburg Succeed

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Rising to barely 5 foot 1 inch, weighing in at just under 100 pounds, and topping out her age bracket at 81 years, we have the meanest, leanest magistrate in the land—the Jewess Justice herself, nicknamed Notorious RBG for her fierce approach on and off the bench—Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg!

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Ginsburg showed extraordinary promise from her early years. Not just as a popular girl on the twirling squad, but as a driven scholar who graduated sixth in her high school class, first in her class at Cornell, and tied for first from Columbia Law (while caring for her ill mother during high school and her ill husband during law school).

Ginsburg credits her drive and success in some ways to being Jewish. She has said that her generation of Jews had to work extra hard “because the best schools had quotas” for the number of Jews they would admit.

Luckily there are no quotas for Jewish women on the Supreme Court, because we wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on her sidekick, Justice Elena Kagan.

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Listen to RGB’s Hobby Lobby dissent—in song!

 

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