Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Isabel Kaplan
Rosh Hashana 2020
When I was asked last night to prepare some thoughts about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg I immediately concluded that I was in no position to do her life and work justice. I’m not a lawyer, an orator or scholar. I was immediately reminded of my father’s death and my certainty that I would not be able to speak at his funeral. But I concluded then, as I have now, that sometimes you just have to push through discomfort and say what needs to be said.
We are indebted to Justice Ginsburg for her fortitude and commitment over six decades of tireless work to change our country for the better. From her earliest years she faced gender discrimination and it indelibly shaped her career. Her deep understanding of the forces that exist which exclude people and limit their rights was the foundation of her groundbreaking legal thinking and arguments. Combining her passion to change the world with her brilliant, strategic mind, she found the right cases and support to build a step by step, decades long strategy to bring our legal, social and political systems closer to the ideals described in the Constitution.
I won’t recite her long list of accomplishments, as most are familiar with her career, except to say that she had many firsts as a woman in a male dominated field, and made contributions that have forever changed our nation’s treatment of women and minorities. She had an egalitarian marriage before that term was coined. She raised two children while in law school and during the early part of her career. She was a professor and mentor to dozens of lawyers and clerks. Justice Ginsburg has been cited for her generous spirit in her role as teacher and mentor which she continued to bestow upon those she worked with up until her death.
Her grit and persistence were apparent as she battled through multiple bouts of cancer, including her husband’s when they were in law school in their 20s. She never slowed down and this summer heard arguments from her hospital bed. She never lost sight of her goals and persevered despite unimaginable obstacles in her work and personal life.
Though it’s hard to see how she had the time, Justice Ginsburg had many interests outside of work and kept up with relationships. Her close friendship with Justice Scalia, her opposite in almost every way, is a model to everyone in how to respect and stay in connection with those who think differently from the way we do.
In this very difficult time in our nation’s history, the devastating news of her death and the potential consequences for the court could be the final blow that causes people to give up hope. Or, we can celebrate and honor her life by following her example. She faced rejection and devaluation and dismissal and it never stopped her. She persisted. Many times, the odds were not in her favor as she argued before the Supreme Court before she became a member of it herself. But it never stopped her.
We cannot be stopped either. Unimaginably, the stakes for our country’s future are now even higher. Let us repay Ruth Bader Ginsburg by redoubling our efforts to build on the change she created that will improve life for everyone. All of the girls who now know it is possible to be a woman and sit on the Supreme Court, all the young women lawyers who chose their profession because of her, all of the grandmother lawyers who worked beside her, all of us who care about equality and rights, we stand on her shoulders. We can and should take our time to grieve for our country’s great loss. And then we can and should follow her example and do everything we can to change our nation’s course this fall. In her honor, we must persist.
