JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG: ‘Is it good for the Jews?’
Pogrebin, Abigail (2007-12-18). Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish (pp. 18-19). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
So I ask the obvious question, “Does being Jewish affect the way you approach cases on the Court?”—expecting her to wave it off with some boilerplate version of Justices can’t let personal experience color their judgment. Instead, her answer is more nuanced. “I don’t think that I approach cases in a particular way because I am Jewish any more than I do because I’m a woman. I have certain sensitivities for both. You know the old expression, ‘Is it good for the Jews?’ For example, a lot of people want to have crosses in front of their town hall or whatever. They say, ‘It doesn’t hurt anybody.’ We had one case where I was in dissent—it was about a cross in front of the Statehouse in Ohio. And to me, the photograph of that statehouse told the whole story of the case: Here is the Capitol in Columbus, and here is this giant cross. And what is the perception of a Jewish child who is passing by the Capitol? It’s certainly that this is a Christian country. A person’s reaction could be: ‘There’s something wrong with me.’ It’s not a symbol that includes you.” The theme of exclusion runs through so many of her stories: the sting of being sidelined, legal cases about people who are made to feel unwelcome. A sad irony occurs to me, as she talks: As other institutions marginalized her for being a Jew, her religion made her feel left out because she was a woman and thus lost her early on. When I ask if she misses Judaism, there’s a long pause. “I wish that I could have the feeling for it that I once did. I don’t think I ever will.”
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