A Timely Reminder of Applicable History
July 1, 2016 12:28 PM   Subscribe

On May 23, Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella addressed the Yale Law School. She told the graduating students the very relevant story of her father's experience before, during and after the Holocaust.
posted by bearwife (9 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
So moving
posted by mumimor at 12:38 PM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I should probably have added it to the post, but I also thought of Ken Burns' recent graduation address (pdf) and his sharp observations about history's lessons when I saw Abella's speech on YouTube.
posted by bearwife at 12:53 PM on July 1, 2016


My cousin's grandfather was also a Holocaust survivor from Romania who literally hid in the woods with his wife and infant daughter, and later escaped a concentration camp. He came to the US in the 1950s and spent the rest of his life helping people get reparations.

It so happens that my cousin is a 2016 YLS graduate. I'm so glad he heard this speech.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:54 PM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I believe the link to the very relevant story should be:

the very relevant story

It also reminded me of Ken Burns' address.

We must learn more from history!
posted by tronec at 1:49 PM on July 1, 2016


A moving talk, thanks for linking it. Does the "very relevant story" link go to the right place? I'm not sure how Muhammad Asad fits in (having clicked that link first, I thought Asad was going to turn out to be her father!), but he was a very interesting guy, and his translation, The Message of the Qur’an, is excellent, with superb notes—I frequently recommend it.
posted by languagehat at 1:53 PM on July 1, 2016


Oops. Thanks for correcting my link, tronec.
posted by bearwife at 3:24 PM on July 1, 2016


Mod note: Swapped in the correct link, carry on.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 3:50 PM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love her so much. She also has a fantastic story of her own:

From the Wikipedia page:
"Abella practised civil and family law until 1976, when at the age of 29 she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court (now part of the Ontario Court of Justice), becoming both the youngest and first pregnant judge in Canadian history.[5] She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992. She has acted as chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Ontario Study into Access to Legal Services by the Disabled and the Ontario Law Reform Commission, and as a member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and of the judicial inquiry into the Donald Marshall, Jr. case. She is considered one of Canada's foremost experts on human rights law, and has taught at McGill Law School in Montreal. She is eligible to serve on the Supreme Court until July 1, 2021.

Justice Abella presided over the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, where she coined the term employment equity, a strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and aboriginal peoples."
posted by lookoutbelow at 4:02 PM on July 1, 2016


That is profoundly powerful.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:39 PM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


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