RBG Awarded $1 Million Prize For ‘Shaping Human Understanding And Advancement’
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivers remarks at the Georgetown Law Center on September 12, 2019, in Washington, DC. Image by Tom Brenner/Getty Images
(JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been awarded a $1 million prize given annually to a thinker whose ideas “have profoundly shaped human understanding and advancement.”
The 2019 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture was announced on Wednesday. The prize, first awarded in 2016, is given by the Berggruen Institute, a Los Angeles-based research organization dedicated to improving governance and cross-cultural understanding. The recipients direct the prize money to the non-profit organization of their choice.
The three previous winners have all been philosophers. They are Charles Taylor of Canada, Onora O’Neil of Britain and Martha Nussbaum of the United States. Five hundred people were nominated for this year’s prize.
The prize committee called Ginsburg “a lifelong trailblazer for human rights and gender equality,” and “a constant voice in favor of equality, the rights of workers and the separation of church and state,” according to the New York Times.
Ginsburg will receive the award during a private ceremony at the New York Public Library in December.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
