Please join the Ohr Kodesh community as Rabbi Fishman engages in conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

      The capstone of our year-long community learning theme:                     Pursuing Justice / “Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof” (Deut. 16:20).  

NOTE: Zoom link for this event has already been sent out.  If you did not receive it or are having technical difficulties joining in via Zoom during the event, please email Dennis Concepcion at dconcepcion@ohrkodesh.org

The free event is open to the Ohr Kodesh congregation and to the community at large, but registration is required. Please complete the form below.

The conversation with Justice Sotomayor will be pre-recorded; Rabbi Fishman will offer additional remarks and context live on May 20.  

Rabbi Fishman looks forward not only to Justice Sotomayor’s reflections on her career in public service - spanning time as a prosecutor, a trial court judge, and an appellate court judge before she assumed her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court - but an exploration of how Justice Sotomayor has conceptualized notions of “Justice” as she has approached all of these different types of responsibilities.  

Judaism, Jewish thought, and Jewish law embody various notions of justice, compassion, and empathy:  in our individual conduct, in our approach to communal and public issues, and in the role of a judge in presiding over civil and criminal cases.  Reflecting on his years in grappling with these issues with Ohr Kodesh and in the Rabbinate, Rabbi Fishman looks forward to comparing notes on how one of the country’s most esteemed jurists approaches these same types of concepts.

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice, was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university’s highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She thereafter served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she was an associate and then partner from 1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992–1998. She then served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998–2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role August 8, 2009.

Rabbi Lyle Fishman and Debby Rosenman came to Ohr Kodesh in 1984.  Over the years, their family and our community grew and prospered. Sharing simchas and sorrows, we have joined together at moments of great joy and communal struggle - always strengthened by their leadership and spirit.  The time has come for a new chapter and the OKC community is thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate with them and honor their service to Ohr Kodesh.