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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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Iran Quietly Expanding Nuclear Program to Build Weapons Under ‘Kavir Plan’ Codename, Dissident Group Says
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran has been expanding its nuclear program to build weapons under the direct oversight of its so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a coalition of Iranian opposition groups revealed on Tuesday.
At an event in Washington, DC, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which seeks to overthrow the country’s Islamist regime, unveiled explosive new intelligence alleging that Tehran has been working to build nuclear weapons while telling the world its expanding nuclear program is only meant for peaceful civilian uses.
The revelations, sourced from the NCRI’s network of dissidents inside Iran, suggest a sophisticated operation named “Kavir Plan” has intensified over the past 15 years with the aim of developing boosted nuclear warheads for ballistic missiles with ranges exceeding 3,000 kilometers.
The disclosure came one day after the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, warned that Iran’s continued accumulation of highly enriched uranium nearing weapons-grade levels poses a serious concern that cannot be ignored.
“Uranium enrichment per se is not a forbidden activity, which is something my Iranian counterparts always tell me,” IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said at a press conference following the agency’s Board of Governors opening meeting in Vienna on Monday.
“At the same time, when you accumulate and continue to accumulate, and you are the only country in the world doing this at a level very, very close to what is needed for a nuclear explosive device, then we cannot ignore it,” Grossi continued. “There is no medical or civilian use for it. That is why it is important for us.”
The IAEA’s latest report to its 35-nation Board of Governors on the Iranian nuclear program, dated May 31, disclosed that Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the IAEA at three locations that have long been under investigation. It also found that Iran has previously conducted multiple implosion tests — a crucial military capability for developing an atomic bomb.
A separate IAEA report sent to member states the same day said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent of weapons grade, had skyrocketed in recent months. According to an analysis of the report’s finding by the Institue for Science and International Security, if Iran chooses to “break out” toward a bomb, it has enough highly enriched uranium at two of its main facilities, Fordow and Natanz, “for 11 nuclear weapons in the first month, enough for 15 nuclear weapons by the end of the second month, 19 by the end of the third month, 21 by the end of the fourth month, and 22 by the end of the fifth month.”
Meanwhile, the US and Iran have been conducting nuclear talks over the past several weeks. Diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over multiple issues including Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition that US President Donald Trump has publicly rejected.
Iran’s nuclear program, according to the NCRI, has consistently aimed at building nuclear weapons, with the regime shifting tactics to adopt a more covert structure that allows the leadership to conceal its activities following the exposure of its weapons program about two decades ago.
The Kavir Plan is now the focal point of the regime’s nuclear activities, the NCRI argued on Tuesday. Headquartered at the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) in Tehran, the program allegedly maintains a constellation of secret sites throughout Iran. These include warhead development facilities at the Shahroud and Semnan sites, the Ivanaki research site, underground test operations in Sorkheh Hesar, and explosives testing at Parchin. Intelligence also points to renewed activity at the Sanjarian site, where engineers are said to be developing shock wave generators required for simultaneous detonation in nuclear weapons.
A central point of the plan is Semnan Province in northern Iran, where accoridng to the NCRI the Iranian military has implemented a security regime dividing the region into three zones: Red, Yellow, and Blue. The Red Zone, encompassing 9 percent of the province, is entirely off-limits to civilians and houses key military installations. The Yellow Zone, which makes up 27 percent, is used for missile testing and is a no-fly area requiring special permits for entry. The remaining Blue Zone, while technically open to civilians, includes extensive environmental protection areas under strict surveillance.
Within these restricted areas, the NCRI identified several important installations believed to be part of the Kavir Plan. These include the Rangin-Kaman site at Ivanaki, the Ghadir radar site for missile defense, and the Me’raj-1 complex in central Semnan, allegedly involved in arming the Simorgh missile with a nuclear warhead. Also of note are the Imam Reza Training Center at the Shahroud Missile Site, the Semnan Air Defense Complex, and logistics and missile defense facilities in Damghan and Shahroud. All these sites are under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist organization, or the Ministry of Defense.
To guard these assets, the NCRI explained, Tehran has put in place a complex counter-intelligence framework. A security unit known as the Kavir Security Unit, along with the IRGC’s Sahib al-Zaman Intelligence Base, oversees the region. Drone surveillance equipped with facial recognition cameras, satellite tracking, and map redactions are just some of the methods reportedly used to monitor and restrict access. Foreign nationals, especially Americans and Europeans visiting for scientific or environmental purposes, are frequently arrested or interrogated.
The NCRI argued that the Iranian government has engaged in a pattern of deception. According to the group, Tehran has never voluntarily revealed nuclear activities to the IAEA. Instead, information became public knowledge through whistleblowers, satellite imagery, or NCRI disclosures. The group accused the regime of a long-standing strategy of concealment, delay, and destruction of evidence.
The dissident organization argued that the recent escalation in nuclear activity stems from increased domestic repression, pointing to over 1,300 executions since Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August 2024. They added that the regime, facing its most fragile political moment in decades, is increasingly reliant on nuclear weapons as a form of political and military insurance.
Calling for a stronger international response, the NCRI urged global powers to immediately invoke the so-called “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several countries to reimpose UN sanctions on the regime before the relevant resolution expires in October. The dissident group also called for the permanent dismantling of Iran’s uranium enrichment programs, the elimination of Iran’s missile capabilities, and unrestricted IAEA inspections across all military and civilian facilities.
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi, who testified before the US Congress earlier this year, reiterated her call on Tuesday for the international community to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist the regime. She emphasized that regime change does not require foreign military intervention, only political support for the Iranian opposition.
“A democratic, non-nuclear Republic of Iran is not only possible; it is within reach,” Rajavi told lawmakers.
The post Iran Quietly Expanding Nuclear Program to Build Weapons Under ‘Kavir Plan’ Codename, Dissident Group Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Canada’s National Holocaust Monument Vandalized With Red ‘Feed Me’ Graffiti
The National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The Ottawa Police Department’s hate and bias crimes unit has begun an investigation into an act of vandalism discovered on Monday at the Canadian city’s National Holocaust Monument.
Red paint proclaimed “Feed Me” in tall, thin letters below the gray structure’s front sign before workers covered the graffiti with a black tarp. The message appeared to be a reference to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The vandals also dumped their paint in four other locations, two on either side of their message.
In a Monday statement on X, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “appalled” at the crime.
“This is a monument that commemorates the six million Jewish lives murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions of other victims of Nazi Germany. It is a space for mourning and remembrance, and its defacing is reprehensible,” Carney wrote.
Other officials expressed their outrage at the antisemitic act.
“This is not a way to address the concerns that people have, either about what’s happening in the Middle East or certainly about what’s happened in our own country with the high spike of antisemitism,” said Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism.
Lyons urged that combating antisemitism was “an effort that requires all Canadians to be engaged in fighting, I think, one of the strongest hatreds that we have ever seen Canada have to address. And if we fail at this, then we will fail at others in the future.”
Melissa Lantsman, who serves in the Canadian parliament as a conservative leader, wrote online that “defacing sacred ground in honor of the millions of victims of the Holocaust in the middle of the night with spray paint isn’t protest, it’s vandalism.”
The International March of the Living — a Holocaust education program that holds an annual march from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the Nazis’ largest death camp where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II — released a statement calling for law enforcement to investigate the vandalism as a hate crime and to ensure security for Jewish organizations.
“This abhorrent act is an assault on memory, truth, and dignity,” said Scott Saunders, CEO of the International March of the Living. “Holocaust memorials stand as solemn reminders of humanity’s darkest chapter and as warnings of what can happen when hatred is left unchecked. Defacing this monument is a cowardly attempt to erase history and spread division. We stand in full solidarity with survivors and with the Canadian Jewish community. We must never stay silent in the face of hate.”
Canadians who survived the Holocaust and their family members expressed their horror at the vandalism.
“I am sick. I could never believe that such an incident would happen on Canadian soil. I always felt the people living here were more compassionate and had more heart. But unfortunately, I was wrong,” Holocaust survivor Esther Fairbloom said in a statement. Calling herself “extremely sad,” Fairbloom added, “I don’t have the same faith as I used to. I don’t feel as strong. I don’t feel as secure. I feel safer in Israel.”
Lawrence Greenspon, co-chair of the monument committee, said, “My father is a Holocaust survivor. His sister and his mother and father were all killed. My daughter is named after his sister.” He said that “when somebody defaces the National Holocaust Monument, it is personal and it hurts, and particularly when it is such an act of hatred and antisemitism.”
Nate Leipciger is 95 years old. He survived Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.
“I feel terrible. I’m upset, I’m disgusted. It is a sad comment on our society, when a group takes out its hatred on the monument that represents the greatest crime in humanity by defacing it,””Leipciger said. “It just shows how depraved they are in their logic and how they’re completely unrealistic in thinking that putting graffiti ‘feed them’ onto the building would somehow help the people in Gaza.”
“Who is the message to?” Leipciger asked. “It’s Hamas that is stopping the Palestinian from being fed. I think it has to be made clear that the sign is misrepresenting in its terrible depravity. The people who are preventing the people from being fed is not Israel, but Hamas.”
According to the International March of the Living, 2024 saw a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada compared to previous years. This equates to Jews who make up 1.4 percent of the population enduring 70 percent of all religious hate crimes.
Fairbloom revealed the extent to which domestic antisemitism had frightened her.
“I’m scared to go out. It’s everywhere. It’s anywhere. And I live in a Jewish area,” she said. “The only way… is to stand together and fight together. I never thought I would say the word ‘fight.’ But we do, whether it’s by words or whether it’s by action. We have to.”
The post Canada’s National Holocaust Monument Vandalized With Red ‘Feed Me’ Graffiti first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Justice Department Sues California Coffee House for Alleged Discrimination Against Jewish Customers
US Attorney General Pam Bondi attends a press conference in Washington, DC, US, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The US Department of Justice has sued an Oakland, California, business accused of denying service to Jewish and pro-Israel customers, an alleged act of discrimination that would violate federal civil rights statutes.
Justice Department officials on Monday said they pursued litigation under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a provision of the law which proscribes denying public accommodations based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement announcing the action. “Through our vigorous enforcement of Title II of the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibiting race and religious discrimination, the Justice Department is committed to combatting antisemitism and discrimination and protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Jerusalem Coffee House owner Abdulrahim Harara in October confronted Jonathan Hirsch, a Jewish man who was wearing a hat emblazoned with a Star of David patch, charging that the apparel carried a “violent” connotation and labeled him as a “Zionist” — a perceived offense for which he demanded that Hirsch leave the premises without completing his order.
“You’re being asked to leave. You’re causing a disruption. This is a private business. You’re being asked to leave,” Harara was overheard saying in footage of the incident. “This is a violent hat, and you need to leave … Get out!”
The police soon arrived and recommended that Hirsch leave when anti-Israel protesters started arriving.
The Jerusalem Coffee House, which celebrates Palestinian culture, has previously stirred controversy for offering two drinks that seemingly indicate support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and violence against Israel. One drink is called “Iced In Tea Fada,” a reference to extended periods of Palestinian terrorism perpetrated against Israel known as “intifadas,” or violent uprisings. The other drink is called is called the “Sweet Sinwar.” Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces last year, was the leader of Hamas and mastermind of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. While the drinks were debuted on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Harara denied that the drink was named after the terrorist leader.
Hirsch is not the only Jewish patron who was allegedly refused service by Harara. In June 2024, local nonprofit director Michael Radice, who is Jewish, was wearing a cap which said “Am Yisrael Chai [Long Live Israel]” at Jerusalem Coffee House when Harara and another employee began shouting “Jew” and “Zionist” at him, according to court documents. The two men menacingly pursued Radice into the street, forcing him to maneuver around a parked car to create a defensive barrier against their advance, prosecutors alleged.
“Neither customer stated anything about their political views to Harara or any other employees while at the coffee house,” the Justice Department said on Monday. “The lawsuit further alleges that the coffee house’s exterior side wall displays inverted red triangles, a symbol of violence against Jews that has been spray painted on Jewish homes and synagogues during antisemitic attacks.”
The Trump administration’s Justice Department has launched a robust effort to fight antisemitism at every level of society. In February, it created a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Its “first priority will be to root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” the department said in a press release, which noted that the group will be housed inside the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and include representatives from the departments of education and health and human services.
The announcement came less than a week after US President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to combat campus antisemitism and hold pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students, fulfilling a promise he made while campaigning for a second term in office. Continuing work started started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the new executive order, titled, “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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