She was an amazing woman. She was patient and persistent and her work ethic was incredible.
It causes me great sorrow and stress that I believe she tried to hold onto life at the end because of her fears for our country and the court. I haven’t seen or heard any reports, but I think of it like a parent who is terminal and has young children, they usually are consumed with worry about what will happen to their children. She had the pressure of half the nation hoping she would not die while Trump was in office, and the other half hopeful her spot would open up.
If there is a such thing as heaven, I hope she is with her mother, who died a day before Ruth’s high school graduation. She must have had very similar feelings of the timing being terrible as she felt death nearing.
She was an example of being able to be friends with people who thought differently than her politically. I think she understood that knowing each other, listening to each, and respecting each other, is how change is made.
I believe she loved America. Her father was from Odessa and that generation of immigrant Jews in my experience usually taught their children to be grateful for America’s promise of equality and freedom and to fight for it. That maybe is what attracted her to the law?
A friend of mine wrote that “according to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began last night, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.”
By the way the translation for the Hebrew is “blessed be the true judge” said when someone dies. The judge is God, but of course it is hard to ignore Justice Ginsburg’s life’s work.