Heart and Soul: The New York Supreme Court’s first female Hasidic judge

Rachel Freier was 30 when she started her training to be an attorney, and many people told her she was making a mistake. Growing up in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY, women having high-powered careers has not the norm, and even discouraged. But for Rachel, a mother of six, she felt that she could be a good mother, a good housewife, stay true to her Jewish faith and beliefs, while still being able to have a career – even if she was a woman. With the support of her husband, something she claims is the really incredible part of the story – that a Hasidic Jewish man would support his wife with these career ambitions – she graduated law school and became an attorney, and then made history becoming the first Hasidic woman to be appointed as a judge at the civil court. Now, she is making history again, having just been elevated to the US Supreme Court. Another first for the Hasidic community. In this Heart and Soul programme, we meet Judge Rachel Freier at the courts in New York to find out how she manages to balance her strong and steadfast religious beliefs with the work that she does in the US justice system. We pay a visit to her home in Brooklyn to hear how she balances everything in her life, while managing a hugely demanding career. And we walk in the neighbourhood where she grew up where people told her it couldn't, and shouldn't be done. If a woman has a career they say, the less time they spend with their children, their husbands, reading the torah. Presenter: Colm Flynn Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta Editor: Helen Grady Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno