Tom Udall: “last Friday, as the Jewish New Year began, Rosh Hashanah, our Nation lost a titan of justice and an unmatched force for…”

“last Friday, as the Jewish New Year began, Rosh Hashanah, our Nation lost a titan of justice and an unmatched force for good--Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah is a tzaddik--a person of great righteousness. Justice Ginsburg, who was only the seventh Jewish Supreme Court Justice and the first female Jewish Justice, was, indeed, righteous. I and Jill, my wife, were proud to call Ruth a friend, and like all Santa Feans, we are proud that Ruth graced our city at the Santa Fe Opera every summer. She loved New Mexico, and New Mexico loved her. Our hearts are with Justice Ginsburg's family. You shared a great national treasure with all of us, and we are eternally grateful. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 1 of only 12 women who graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959. With a young child in tow, she tied for first in her class. Talk about a trailblazer. Indeed, RBG, as she is so affectionately called, blazed so many trails--too many to list. She was the first woman to serve on two major law reviews and one of the first female law professors in the Nation. She cofounded the first law journal on women's rights, and coauthored the first casebook on gender discrimination. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to push open those doors because no one opened them for her. She was no stranger to gender discrimination. She was demoted at work when she became pregnant with her first child. She was refused a U.S.…”