Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the second woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, became famous for fighting gender discrimination and sexism. She died in 2020 at the age of eighty-seven after serving as a Supreme Court justice for twenty-seven years, starting in 1993.
Many people know about her feminist identity, but what about the fact that she was Jewish? Ruth Bader Ginsberg was the first Jewish woman on the Supreme Court. This is an important fact to know when thinking about her history before becoming a Supreme Court justice. Ginsburg, like many Jews, faced some anti-semitism in her life. According to Lamba Legal, she was a little kid when she saw “a sign in front of a Pennsylvania resort that said ‘No dogs or Jews allowed.’” It also described how Ruth Bader Ginsburg “spent her life and career fighting for those who were forgotten and marginalized; to a generation of Jewish women coming of age, she was someone who had made good on the promise of America.”
While RBG made an impact by being the first Jewish woman on the Supreme Court, her work towards abolishing sexism should never be forgotten. “For more than fifty years, Ginsburg worked hard to end sex and gender discrimination in U.S. law,” the University of Massachusetts Amherst notes. “First as the founder of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project in 1972, where she successfully argued five of the six cases before the Supreme Court, and then as only the second woman serving on the U.S. Supreme Court.”
RBG is an inspiration to all, and she will be missed by everyone around the world.
