Ruth Bader Ginsburg In Israel To Accept Award From Group Natalie Portman Snubbed
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has arrived in Israel to receive an award from the Jewish organization snubbed earlier this year by actor Natalie Portman.
The inaugural Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court justice in a private event at the Yitzhak Rabin Center, Tel Aviv, on Wednesday evening.
The Genesis Prize was established five years ago by a group of wealthy Jewish-Russian businessmen, to “recognize [Jewish] individuals who have attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields.”
Haaretz’s Yossi Verter reported last November that Ginsburg had originally been tapped to receive the prize. However, according to Verter, the decision was reversed when the prize committee realized that the U.S. Supreme Court justice had been critical of Donald Trump prior to his election, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not want to be seen on the same stage with a liberal who had attacked the president. The committee itself, however, said it had overturned its decision when the panel’s legal adviser discovered that U.S. judges are barred from receiving monetary prizes from a foreign country.
As a result, the Genesis Prize Foundation announced in November that Ginsburg would receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and that Israeli-born, Academy Award-winning actor Portman would receive its top prize, which comes with a $1 million award.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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