Jewish diva and EGOT winner Barbra Streisand was just announced as the fourth recipient of the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award, and truly we can’t think of a more appropriate recipient for this award.
Previous winners of the award, which RBG conceived of 18 months before her passing, were Queen Elizabeth II, arts patron Agnes Gund and daughter of Holocaust survivor and majestic designer Diane Von Furstenberg.
Streisand, 80, was officially selected by the 14-member awards committee; according to philanthropist and jurist Julie Opperman, “it was the shortest deliberation we’ve ever had.”
“She wanted to honor women of great passion and achievement,” Opperman told the Washington Post. “She wanted it to be women in the RBG tradition. I’m pleased to say Barbra Streisand was among them.”
Of course she was: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a lover of culture and a great admirer of Babs. In fact, it’s safe to say that the Jewish icons, who both grew up in Brooklyn a decade apart, were huge fans of each other. When RBG passed away back in Rosh Hashanah of 2020, Streisand paid tribute to her as “a giant of the Supreme Court” and “an inspiration to legal scholars and women.”
Streisand is being awarded for her activism and advocacy in the realms of human rights and climate change, and for her charity work: The singer established the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The official award ceremony will take place at the Library of Congress on April 22.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award named after one of most the iconic and pathbreaking Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court,” Streisand wrote about winning the award.
Mazel tov, Babs! And may Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memory be for a blessing.
