Estrich talks on growth of Jewish identity in America
By Joi Harris
Staff Reporter

In the 1940s, six million Jews who had no voice lost their lives. There are now at least six million Jews in 21st century America, Susan Estrich said, many of whom are powerful but don’t incorporate their Jewish background into their opinions.

“You will never see a list of the 100 most powerful Jews because we have an ambivalence of our power,” Estrich said.

During the fifth annual Gates of Chai Lectureship in Contemporary Judaism, Estrich’s speech “Power, Politics, and Social Justice in Contemporary Judaism” was marked by bursts of laughter and periods of silence as she relayed some of her experiences of this country’s Judeo-Christian society.

In the span of three generations, she said, the Jewish population has gone from being afraid of its own shadow to one that is not afraid of anything. However, she said, the problem is that they don’t know how to defend their faith because they aren’t being raised with traditional Jewish faiths.

“Now is the time for Jews to recommit themselves to their Jewish identity, not because they are being forced to, but because they want to,” Estrich said.

Doyle Williams, a structural test engineer for Lockheed Martin, said Estrich gave him a lot of things to think about.

“Not being Jewish and listening to her concerns about assimilation and lack of Jewish pride was thought provoking,” Williams said.

Estrich is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an academic organization and a Durant Scholar at Wellesley College in Massachusetts where she earned her bachelor of arts degree in 1974. She graduated magna cum laude in 1977 from Harvard Law School. In 1989, Estrich was given the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Radcliffe graduate alumni association.

“The essence of being successful is not about luck,” Estrich said. “It’s about being played the hand you’re dealt. Nobody is dealt all aces.”

Estrich began her career in law as a clerk for J. Skelly Wright, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals and she later clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court.

She is currently a Los Angeles Times contributing editor and she is a former columnist for USA Today. Estrich can frequently be seen on national news programs including Fox News where she is one half of the “odd couple” with Dick Morris.

Joi Harris