Amsterdam, Judge Birdie

1901 - 1996  (95 years)

• Name	Amsterdam, Birdie  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]
  Title	Judge
  Born	25 Mar 1901	New York, New York, New York, USA   [1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18]
  Gender	Female
  Residence	1 Jun 1915	New York, New York, USA   [8]
  	Relation to Head of House: Daughter
  Died	8 Jul 1996	New York, New York, New York, USA   [1, 5, 7, 11, 17]
  Buried	Mount Zion Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, New York, USA   [7, 19]
  Person ID	I19020	Our Family
  Last Modified	16 Jan 2024

  
  

  Father	Amsterdam, Joseph,   b. Abt 1873, Austria ,   d. 9 Dec 1938  (Age ~ 65 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Sparling, Essie,   b. Abt 1877, Austria ,   d. 23 Aug 1953, New York, New York, New York, USA  (Age ~ 76 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Married	2 Jan 1895	New York, New York, New York, USA   [2, 20]
  Family ID	F4420	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Dunn, Frank Peter,   b. 9 Aug 1896, Russia ,   d. 11 Oct 1972, Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA  (Age 76 years)
  Married	25 Feb 1930	Manhattan, New York, New York, USA   [2, 16]
  Divorced	Bef 1940
  Last Modified	16 Jan 2024
  Family ID	F5223	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Justice Birdie Amsterdam, who achieved several judicial firsts, including being the first woman elected to the New York state Supreme Court, died Monday at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. She was 95 and lived on the Lower East Side, just steps from where she was born. Justice Amsterdam came to be called the ''first lady of the judiciary'' by her peers and other admirers, a sobriquet earned during 35 years on the bench. She was the first woman elected to the Municipal Court in New York County in 1940. She was active in the Democratic Party, but when she was up for re-election in 1949, she carried the endorsements of all three parties, all bar associations, the Citizens' Union, and the American Federation of Labor. In 1954, Justice Amsterdam was appointed acting justice of the City Court, another first for a woman, and won election to the office the next year. In 1958, she gained the Supreme Court bench as a Democrat-Liberal, supported again by a long roster of civic, communal, educational, labor, scientific, philanthropic, and religious groups. She served until 1975. In New York, the Supreme Court is the court of general jurisdiction, equivalent to Pennsylvania's Court of Common Pleas. Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, the first woman on the Court of Appeals in Albany, N.Y., the state's highest tribunal, recalled Justice Amsterdam's trailblazing achievements in a 1991 article in the New York Law Journal. The state Supreme Court was more than 250 years old before a woman was elected to it, Judge Kaye wrote, and even now, women do not enjoy the status of equals in the legal profession. ''Thoughts of Justice Amsterdam's arrival on the New York state Supreme Court serve to remind of us both of how far we have advanced toward these objectives and how much they continue to elude us,'' she wrote. Justice Amsterdam was one of six children of Joseph Amsterdam, a band leader from Austria. At 12, she taught English to foreign-born neighbors. Growing up in a neighborhood of immigrants and the poor awakened a commitment to social issues that guided her life as a lawyer and jurist. Her concerns ranged from playgrounds to summer camps, from slum clearance to shelter for the aged and the infirm, and from medical care to tuition assistance that could give a student a leg up. One of her special interests was the advancement of women in the legal profession. Justice Amsterdam graduated on a state scholarship from Hunter College High School at 17. Waiting to meet the age requirement for admission to New York University Law School, she spent a year studying economics, banking and accounting at City College. She attended evening classes at NYU and held a full-time job at Mount Sinai Hospital, keeping records and accounts. Once she received her law degree in 1922, Mount Sinai doctors helped her practice by steering friends her way. She swiftly established a reputation not only as a skillful lawyer but also as an eloquent friend of the downtrodden, a champion of women's rights and a diligent party worker. She became a Tammany Hall district co-leader on the East Side of Manhattan. Justice Birdie Amsterdam, who achieved several judicial firsts, including being the first woman elected to the New York state Supreme Court, died Monday at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. She was 95 and lived on the Lower East Side, just steps from where she was born. Justice Amsterdam came to be called the ''first lady of the judiciary'' by her peers and other admirers, a sobriquet earned during 35 years on the bench. She was the first woman elected to the Municipal Court in New York County in 1940. She was active in the Democratic Party, but when she was up for re-election in 1949, she carried the endorsements of all three parties, all bar associations, the Citizens' Union, and the American Federation of Labor. In 1954, Justice Amsterdam was appointed acting justice of the City Court, another first for a woman, and won election to the office the next year. In 1958, she gained the Supreme Court bench as a Democrat-Liberal, supported again by a long roster of civic, communal, educational, labor, scientific, philanthropic, and religious groups. She served until 1975. In New York, the Supreme Court is the court of general jurisdiction, equivalent to Pennsylvania's Court of Common Pleas. Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, the first woman on the Court of Appeals in Albany, N.Y., the state's highest tribunal, recalled Justice Amsterdam's trailblazing achievements in a 1991 article in the New York Law Journal. The state Supreme Court was more than 250 years old before a woman was elected to it, Judge Kaye wrote, and even now, women do not enjoy the status of equals in the legal profession. ''Thoughts of Justice Amsterdam's arrival on the New York state Supreme Court serve to remind of us both of how far we have advanced toward these objectives and how much they continue to elude us,'' she wrote. Justice Amsterdam was one of six children of Joseph Amsterdam, a band leader from Austria. At 12, she taught English to foreign-born neighbors. Growing up in a neighborhood of immigrants and the poor awakened a commitment to social issues that guided her life as a lawyer and jurist. Her concerns ranged from playgrounds to summer camps, from slum clearance to shelter for the aged and the infirm, and from medical care to tuition assistance that could give a student a leg up. One of her special interests was the advancement of women in the legal profession. Justice Amsterdam graduated on a state scholarship from Hunter College High School at 17. Waiting to meet the age requirement for admission to New York University Law School, she spent a year studying economics, banking and accounting at City College. She attended evening classes at NYU and held a full-time job at Mount Sinai Hospital, keeping records and accounts. Once she received her law degree in 1922, Mount Sinai doctors helped her practice by steering friends her way. She swiftly established a reputation not only as a skillful lawyer but also as an eloquent friend of the downtrodden, a champion of women's rights and a diligent party worker. She became a Tammany Hall district co-leader on the East Side of Manhattan.

  
  

• Sources

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