Ruth Bader Ginsburg Worked Harder to Beat Jewish Quotas
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience at a Washington, D.C., synagogue last week that being a woman was a greater career obstacle than being Jewish.
Ginsburg graduated in a tie for first place from Columbia Law School in 1959, but not a single New York firm offered her a job. She said being the mother of a young child was “the real killer,” the Washington Post reports.
Still, Ginsburg also experienced anti-Semitism. She recalled the time as a child when she saw a sign at a country inn that said, “No dogs or Jews allowed.” She said Jewish kids her age knew they had to be the best academically to gain admittance to top schools with limits on Jewish students.
Ginsburg said she is not an observant Jew, recalling that she made the decision at the age of 17, when she learned that Jewish law did not allow a group of women to join in a group prayer after her mother’s death. Jewish law required 10 men to begin the prayer.
Ginsburg spoke in connection with a new PBS series called “The Jewish Americans,” which includes an interview with the justice.
