Federal Judge: Brooklyn College Education on Par With Yale, Harvard

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Jack Weinstein, a federal judge at Brooklyn’s U.S. District Court, said at a Brooklyn Historical Society event Tuesday night that the quality of his World War II-era education at Brooklyn College was “remarkable,” and on par with programs at Yale and Harvard.

Weinstein remembered being a “terrible student” at Public School 205 in Bensonhurst before he enrolled at Brooklyn College, according to Brooklyn Daily Eagle reporter Rob Abruzzese, who attended the event.

From the Eagle:

After graduating high school, Weinstein went to Brooklyn College, which was free to attend at the time. Weinstein recalled volunteering to fight in WWII prior to graduating, but was instructed that if he finished his degree he would go into the Navy as an officer, which is what he did. During the war, Weinstein realized that his free public education still put him at the level of other officers who had graduated from Yale and Harvard.

“To take a trolley to Brooklyn College to be exposed to Greek philosophy and mathematicians and other things — it changed my life,” Weinstein said. “And it was free, absolutely free. My education was remarkable and it made all the difference in the world in my ability to move on.

“It made me a firm believer of what government can do when it’s properly handled because much of my life was due to public buildings like Seth Low, Brooklyn College and also the [Brooklyn Public Library] and the [Brooklyn Museum].”

Weinstein would go on to join the team of attorneys who helped Thurgood Marshall prepare the NAACP’s defense case in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended up overturning school segregation in the U.S. (Although we all know Brooklyn still has a long way to go in that arena.)

For the rest of Weinstein’s interview — including some great bits on old Williamsburg and Coney Island, and $1 steak in Manhattan — read the full Brooklyn Daily Eagle report.