From camp 'rabbi' to pursuing justice: How Judaism animated Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life

[Behind the Aegis]

In its obituary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Guardian wrote that the late Jewish Supreme Court justice “abandoned her religion.”

That couldn’t be more wrong.

While Ginsburg, who died Friday at age 87 after 27 years on the high court’s bench, was not known for her ritual observance, she spoke frequently about how Jewish values inspired her, and she was active in Jewish causes and with Jewish organizations.

As Ginsburg would note in speeches, she was the only justice with a mezuzah affixed to her office door. A poster on the wall read “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” the Hebrew injunction from the Torah meaning “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” She also once wore that line woven into one of her jabots, or collars worn on her Supreme Court robes.

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[ChazII]

1. From the article

“I am a judge born, raised, and proud of being a Jew,” she wrote in an essay for the American Jewish Committee in 1996. “The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition. I hope, in my years on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and courage to remain constant in the service of that demand.”