At BHS event, Judge Jack Weinstein recalls growing up in old Brooklyn
A lot has been written and said about Judge Jack B. Weinstein’s prolific legal career, but during a packed event at the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) on Tuesday night the judge took a look back at his life before the law — his days growing up in Brooklyn, his years as an officer in the Navy and the ways his youth influenced his career.
Judge Weinstein, of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York, sat down with Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, to discuss his life. To prepare for the event, Weinstein drove around all the different parts of the borough that were important to him, many of which he had not visited in over 40 years.
Weinstein spoke about his birth in Wichita, Kansas in 1921, and moving to Brooklyn about five years later. He discussed growing up on Rodney Street in Williamsburg where his father once owned a shoe repair shop, going to P.S. 205 and Seth Low Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and eventually his days at Lincoln High School in Coney Island.