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Fashioning feminism: A photography exhibit explores the meaning of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s collars
(New York Jewish Week) – The first Jewish woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known for her trailblazing advocacy of gender equality, her impassioned dissenting opinions and for being a liberal icon.
But the Brooklyn native, who served on the court for 27 years until her death at age 87, was also known for her fashion — particularly, the collars she wore on top of her black robes. Many of her collars were trimmed with lace, others intricately woven with beads and jewels; some were fashioned out of neckties and seashells, while others were crochet. Each helped Ginsburg embrace a subtle, feminine statement about causes she cared about.
Now, three years after Ginsburg’s death on Erev Rosh Hashanah in 2020, photographs of 24 of the collars Ginsburg wore throughout her career are on display in a new exhibit, “RBG Collars: Photographs by Elinor Carucci,” that opened Friday at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side. The collars, photographed by Elinor Carucci, an Israeli photographer who has been living and working in New York since 1995, are a way of celebrating the trailblazing life and career of the Jewish justice, Carucci told the New York Jewish Week.
“I’ve never done something like this,“ said Carucci, who typically photographs people — and not objects — for publications like The New Yorker, the New York Times and New York Magazine. “The whole thing was intense, but really wonderful. It was such an honor, especially for someone that I admire so greatly. It feels like I got to document a little prism into her life.”
Ginsburg’s history with the decorative collars dates to 1993, when she was first appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton. Alongside her colleague, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, they began wearing a version of a jabot — a lace ruffle fastened around the neck — showcasing subtle femininity to set themselves apart. Judge’s robes, after all, were designed for men, and allowed for a shirt collar and tie to peek through at the neck. As the story goes, the collars also kept them from looking washed out by their robes.
Over the years, however, Ginsburg explored options beyond the lace ruffle, and she utilized the subtlety of her collars to make statements about causes and people she cared about. One collar is made out of Hawaiian shells, gifted to Ginsburg by a third-year law student at the University of Hawai’i when Ginsburg was a justice-in-residence in 2017. Another is made out of four layers of jacquard fabric — one for each member of Ginsburg’s family, which included her late husband, Martin Ginsburg, who died in 2010, and their children Jane and James — with the words “It’s not sacrifice, it’s family,” stitched into the neckline. The phrase was one Marty Ginsburg told the New York Times when asked why he gave up his law career to move to Washington to support his wife.
A collar made out of shells and another made out of jacquard. The first was gifted to Ginsburg by a law student at the University of Hawai’i in 2017 and the second by her clerks in 2018. (Elinor Carucci)
Ginsburg often wore a black and gold jeweled collar, shining and armorlike, when she announced dissenting opinions. Similarly, she wore a yellow beaded and rose scalloped collar when she announced majority opinions.
As New York Times’ chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote in 2020 upon Ginsburg’s death, her collars “served as both semiology and semaphore: They signaled her positions before she even opened her mouth, and they represented her unique role as the second woman on the country’s highest court.”
“The idea was to claim what was a traditionally male uniform and unapologetically feminize it,” Friedman wrote. “That may seem innocuous, but it was in fact radical.”
Photographs of two of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s most iconic collars, “Majority” and “Dissent,” which she wore when announcing each respective opinion. (Elinor Carucci)
The idea to photograph the collars began as an assignment for Time Magazine, Carucci said.
In 2020, just one month after Ginsburg died, Carucci was sent to the Supreme Court, where the collars were being rolled out of Ginsburg’s chambers — which, as it happens, were no longer empty, as it was also Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first day on the job. Today, some of the collars and other RGB memorabilia belong to a permanent exhibition in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Carrucci said she only had only six minutes to photograph each collar. “When I saw them, I started crying,” she told the New York Jewish Week. “I was already so emotional about her passing and what it meant. My husband was like, ‘Stop crying, we only have three minutes left.’”
The original article was so well received, it inspired to Carucci to put together a book of her photographs, alongside a brief history or anecdote of each collar. She enlisted writer and researcher Sara Bader (no relation) to work with her; the 222-page book, “The Collars of RBG: A Portrait of Justice” was released last month.
Carucci said one of the most surprising aspects of the project was how relatable and universal the collars are, despite belonging to one of the most recognizable women in the country. “Firstly, I appreciate that it’s not about the body,” she said. “Many times, as women, we feel that we can send messages by how we present ourselves. A lot of the time, it’s related to our bodies and our body types and it gets complicated. With these, they’re not related to the body.”
“Also, what I like is that almost every woman could wear these,” she added. “They are very ‘of the people.’ They’re accessible. The lace looks like something my grandma used to wear. They are the collection of a woman — something we could all have.”
At the Jewish Museum, the photographs of the collars are displayed alongside Judaica, amulets, necklaces and pendants in the museum’s collection. Although the collars themselves aren’t particularly Jewish, by interspersing the photographs with jewelry over the centuries, curator Shira Backer aims to showcase how Ginsburg’s accessories are part of a long tradition of Jewish tradition and adornment.
Ginsburg, according to a press release about the exhibit, “understood how adornment — particularly jewelry, given its close association with the body and its ability to express individuality in settings where possibilities for self-expression are limited — can communicate beauty and power, joy and defiance, optimism and resolve.”
“RBG Collars: Photographs by Elinor Carucci” will be on view at the Jewish Museum through May 2024. The photographs are also on display at the Edwynn Houk Gallery, which has represented Carucci’s work for the last two decades, through Feb. 10.
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UK Police Arrest Two Men for Spraying Jewish People With Water in Viral Online Video
Two men sprayed water guns at Jewish pedestrians in a viral video taken in the UK. Photo: Screenshot
Authorities arrested two men in the United Kingdom on Thursday for squirting specifically Jewish pedestrians with water guns, as seen in a video that has gone viral on social media, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.
The men, ages 26 and 36, were arrested in Farnworth, Bolton, and remain in custody for questioning on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault, police added. Authorities have also seized a vehicle and water pistol suspected to have been used in the incident.
“We are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness and have acted swiftly to make arrests,” said Chief Inspector Simon Ashcroft, of GMP’s Salford district. He noted that GMP has a “zero-tolerance approach to hate crime in any form,” and police are “committed to ensuring our communities feel safe and supported.”
“We continue to work closely with our partners to provide reassurance and encourage anyone affected to come forward,” he added. “We are also aware from other footage that there may be further victims, and we urge anyone who believes they have been targeted to contact GMP or the Community Security Trust (CST).” Police encourage anyone with information about the incident to contact authorities or file a report online.
The viral video – which was shared earlier this month on social media and has since been deleted — showed two men in a vehicle in Greater Manchester laughing and smiling as they sprayed water at Orthodox Jewish pedestrians, including children. The two men targeted Jewish people as the traditional Jewish song “Hava Nagila” played in the background.
The video was posted on social media by a Polish rap group called KONSP1RA, whose members include a YouTuber and UK resident named Kamil Galanty and his friend Mati. Both men are featured in the water gun prank video. KONSP1RA has posted similar water prank videos on social media, but the most recent was the first to specifically target only Jewish people. However, the group has targeted Jews in other prank videos, including one filmed in an airport and another in a supermarket.
CST, the UK’s Jewish security organization, condemned the “appalling antisemitic video” on Wednesday. The British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism said the pranksters behaved “like playground bullies” by harassing Jewish people and added that the incident “is not a prank but antisemitic abuse, and doing so from the comfort of your car is particularly cowardly.”
In response to backlash over the clip, KONSP1RA insisted in a statement on social media that they are not antisemitic. They claimed they “respect all races, all religions, and all people.”
“We strongly reject any form of hate, racism, or discrimination,” they wrote. “Our channel is based entirely on humor, entertainment, and light-hearted pranks. Our goal is to make people laugh – never to hurt or offend … If anyone interpreted our video in a harmful or offensive way – we are truly sorry. That was never our intention.”
KONSP1RA said they are being “wrongfully attacked” and labeled antisemitic — “something that does not represent us or our content in any way.” They said accusations made against the group are “extremely hurtful and unfair.”
“Let’s not spread hate where there was never any intention of it,” they stated in conclusion. “Peace and respect to all.”
Photo: Facebook
This week’s arrests came one day after CST published a new report detailing antisemitic incidents recorded during the first half of this year. CST recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June, marking the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by the nonprofit security group in the first six months of any year.
This year’s total was only surpassed by the first half of 2024, in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
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Azerbaijan and Armenia to Sign Peace Deal, White House Says
Residents in vehicles attempt to leave the city of Stepanakert following a military operation conducted by Azerbaijani armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, Sept. 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/David Ghahramanyan
Azerbaijan and Armenia will sign an initial US-brokered peace agreement during a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday, a deal aimed at boosting economic ties between the two countries after decades of conflict, the White House said.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told reporters that Trump would sign separate deals with both Armenia and Azerbaijan on energy, technology, economic cooperation, border security, infrastructure, and trade. No further details were provided.
Trump will meet separately with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House, beginning at 2:30 pm (1830 GMT), with a trilateral meeting set for 4:15 pm (2015 GMT), the White House said.
The agreement includes exclusive US development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus, dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.”
US officials said the agreement was hammered out during repeated visits to the region and would provide a basis for working toward a full normalization between the countries.
Neither the joint declaration due to be signed nor the separate bilateral agreements with the US were released.
It was not immediately clear how the deal being signed on Friday would address thorny issues such as the demarcation of shared borders and Baku’s demand for a change in Yerevan’s constitution, which includes a reference to a 1989 call for the reunification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, then an autonomous region within Soviet Azerbaijan.
Officials briefing reporters skirted over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Azerbaijan took back full control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 in a military offensive, prompting almost all of the territory’s remaining 100,000 Armenians to flee to Armenia.
US officials highlighted the opportunities presented for both countries and US investors through creation of the new transit corridor, which will allow greater exports of energy and other resources.
“What’s going to happen here with the Trump route is, this isn’t charity. This is a highly investable entity,” said one senior administration official, adding that at least nine companies had in recent days expressed interest in operating the transit corridor, including three US firms.
‘SAFER AND MORE PROSPEROUS’
Under a carefully negotiated section of the documents the leaders will sign on Friday, Armenia plans to award the US exclusive special development rights for an extended period on a transit corridor that will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, and known by the acronym TRIPP, the officials told Reuters this week.
Trump would sign a directive to set up a negotiating team to work out details for how to operate the corridor, with initial commercial negotiations to begin next week, one of the officials said.
“The losers here are China, Russia, and Iran. The winners here are the West,” one of the officials said. “Both countries that have been in conflict for 35 years … are looking and talking about full peace with each other tomorrow.”
“It’s being done, not through force, but through commercial partnership … with these two countries,” the official said. “The joint declaration that we’re going to see signed today is the first-ever peace declaration signed bilaterally by the two countries since the end of the Cold War.”
Trump has tried to present himself as a global peacemaker in the first months of his second term. The White House credits him with brokering a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand and sealing peace deals between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pakistan and India. He also is intensifying efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, eyeing a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week.
Senior administration officials told reporters the agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan marked the first end to several frozen conflicts on Russia’s periphery since the end of the Cold War and said it would send a powerful signal to the entire region.
“This isn’t just about Armenia. It’s not just about Azerbaijan. It’s about the entire region, and they know that that region is going to be safer and more prosperous with President Trump,” a senior administration official said.
A peace deal could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey, and Iran that is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines but riven by closed borders and longstanding ethnic conflicts.
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US and UK Differ on Gaza but Share Goal to End Crisis, Vance Says
US Vice President JD Vance meets British Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening House in Sevenoaks, Britain, Aug. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/Pool
Britain and the United States may disagree about how to address the crisis in Gaza, but they share a common goal in resolving it, Vice President JD Vance said as he met British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday in southern England.
Vance, who has previously criticized Britain and its governing Labour Party, landed with his wife Usha and their three children in London before heading to Chevening, the large country residence used by the British foreign minister in Kent.
The visit comes amid increased attention on Vance‘s foreign policy views as he emerges as a key figure in President Donald Trump’s administration and his possible pick as successor.
Asked about Britain’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state, Vance said the US and Britain had a common objective to resolve the crisis in the Middle East, adding: “We may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we’ll talk about that today.”
Vance reiterated that the US had no plans to recognise a Palestinian state, saying he did not know what recognition actually meant, “given the lack of a functional government there.”
Britain, by contrast, has taken a harder stance against Israel, declaring its intention to recognize a Palestinian state along with France and Canada to put pressure on Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu over the continuing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Close to Chevening House, a small group of protesters had gathered, some waving Palestinian flags and one holding up a sign showing a meme of Vance. Other protests are also planned during the visit.
Asked by a reporter about Trump’s suggestion this week that Vance was his likely heir apparent for the 2028 presidential election, the vice president said his current focus was to do a “good job” for Americans.
“I’m not really focused even on the election in 2026, much less one, two years after that,” he said, referring to the midterm election next year.
FISHING TRIP
Earlier on Friday, Vance and Lammy went fishing in the lake behind Chevening House, appearing relaxed in blue button-down shirts and sharing a laugh.
Vance joked to reporters that the “one strain on the special relationship” between Britain and the US was that all his children had caught fish but that the British foreign minister had not.
“Before beginning our bilateral, the Vice President gave me fishing tips, Kentucky style,” Lammy said in a post on X.
The pair have developed a warm friendship, bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith, according to two officials familiar with the relationship.
“I have to say that I really have become a good friend, and David has become a good friend of mine,” Vance told reporters, sitting beside Lammy.
After spending two nights in Chevening with Lammy, the Vances will travel to the Cotswolds, a picturesque area that is a popular retreat for wealthy and influential figures, from footballers and film stars to media and political figures.
Vance has championed an America First foreign policy and once said last year’s election victory for Lammy’s center-left Labour Party meant Britain was “maybe” the first “truly Islamist” country with a nuclear weapon.
Lammy once called Trump a “far-right extremist” and a “neo-Nazi” but since coming to power has brushed off his remarks as “old news.”
Vance‘s trip will include several official engagements, meetings, and visits to cultural sites and a likely meeting with US troops, a source familiar with the planning said.
Trump, who traveled to Scotland for a private visit, is also scheduled for a historic second state visit to Britain next month.