From growing up in Sunset Park to administrative judge of the family court
When the Hon. Jeanette Ruiz was growing up on the streets of Sunset Park, there weren’t any judges who looked like her: both female and Hispanic. But she didn’t let that stop her from becoming one of the most well-respected judges in the city court system as administrative judge of the New York City Family Court.
“I really care a lot about people, I care a lot about fairness, equality, and wanted to make the world a better place,” Ruiz said. “My interest was always in helping people, wanting to give back because, in many ways, I had certain opportunities that not everyone had.”
Ruiz grew up as the oldest of two children in a working-class family in Sunset Park. Her father, who worked in a mattress factory as an adult, came to the U.S. as a teenager in the 1930s. Her mother, who worked in an electrical factory, came later, just after WWII, in the 1940s.
The family never had a lot of money, but owned a home on 53rd Street that had a fence and a yard with a cherry tree in the back. Ruiz described the house and the tight-knit neighborhood as something out of an old movie. It was growing up poor in a neighborhood where people were held back because they could not speak English that taught Ruiz the importance of education.