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Brandeis, Frankfurter on new stamps

September 23, 2009

BOSTON (JTA) -- The images of Jewish U.S. Supreme Court justices Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter are included in a new series of postage stamps.

The series of 44 cent stamps released Tuesday by the U.S. Postal Service also includes 19th-century Justice Joseph Story and Justice William Brennan from the latter half of the 20th century. The justices in the stamp series are noted for their significance and longevity on the court. All four attended Harvard Law School; Brennan was a student of Frankfurter’s.

Brandeis, the nation’s first Jewish justice, was appointed to the high court in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson and served 23 years. The Kentucky native first achieved national prominence promoting business regulation, fighting corruption and championing workers’ rights.

“It’s important that we reflect on the life of a man who was committed to the ideals of intellectual inquiry, social justice and a fully functioning democracy,” said Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz.

Frank Gilbert, a grandson of Brandeis, will speak at a tribute dedicating the new stamp held Thursday on the Boston-area campus.

Frankfurter, whose family emigrated from Austria in 1894, rose from the poverty of the tenements of New York to attend City College and on to Harvard Law, where he graduated first in his class. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1939 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and served until 1962.

Brandeis mentored Frankfurter in a complex relationship that spanned more than 30 years, according to Melvin Urofsky, the author of a newly published Brandeis biography.

 

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