Justice Ginsburg celebrates her commitment to tikkun olam

SAM SOKOL

“The demand for justice, peace and enlightenment runs through Jewish history and tradition,” she said, describing how she is reminded of this fact every day when she enters her judicial chambers and is confronted with a poster proclaiming the biblical verse: “Justice, justice thou shalt pursue.”

“My room has the only mezuzah in the US Supreme Court,” she said, noting that “growing up Jewish, the concept of tikkun olam, repairing tears in the community and making things better for people less fortunate, was part of my heritage. The Jews are the people of the book and learning is prized above all else. I am lucky to have that heritage.”

In Jerusalem to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Genesis Prize Foundation, Ginsburg – who is as well known for her scathing dissenting opinions as she is for her lifetime commitment to gender equality – was feted by the Jewish state’s political and judicial elites.

In a speech honouring her American co-religionist at the award ceremony on Wednesday, 4 July, Israeli Supreme Court President Esther Hayut praised Ginsburg as a spokeswoman for the marginalised and ignored.

“Law is about justice, and the experience of injustice gives one profound insight as to what justice should look like,” The Jerusalem Post reported Hayut as saying. “Through her decisions, Justice Bader Ginsburg upholds the values without which democracy would be an empty vessel.”

Former Israeli Supreme Court president Aharon Barak made a similar statement, calling Ginsburg “one of the great legal minds of our time; an outstanding Jewish jurist whose fearless pursuit of human rights, equality and justice for all stems from her Jewish values.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Ginsburg evoked the memory of Anne Frank, who questioned common gender roles in her famous diary.

“When I became active in the movement to open doors to women, enabling them to enter occupations once closed to them – lawyering and judging, bartending, policing and firefighting, for example – I was heartened by the words of a girl of my generation,” said Ginsburg, 85.

“I am a judge, born, raised and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice, for peace and for enlightenment runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition. I hope, in all the years I have the good fortune to continue serving on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and courage to remain steadfast in the service of that demand.”

Initially offered the Genesis Foundation’s annual Genesis Prize, which comes with a cash grant, Ginsburg said she demurred, worried that the presence of Israeli politicians on the selection committee would run afoul of the Constitution’s emoluments clause prohibiting government officials from receiving gifts from foreign powers. She said it was only after the foundation agreed to create a new lifetime achievement award whose selection committee was apolitical that she relented and agreed to be honoured.

The award later went to actress Natalie Portman, who declined to attend the award ceremony because of her political differences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(JTA)