Bert Pogrebin, attorney and partner to main feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, dies at 89

(JTA) — Bert Pogrebin and Letty Jo Cottin ended up married in 1963, hardly six months right after they achieved. Above the next 60 yrs, they modeled a symbiotic relationship that was not just the envy of their friends on New York’s Upper West Aspect, but that also had political pounds: A highly effective labor lawyer and one of the most influential figures in the women’s motion, the pair demonstrated how two bold spouses could elevate youngsters, pursue careers and aid just one yet another without the need of rancor or bruised egos.

“He does not want to verify his masculinity or large-foot others in buy to come to feel like a male,” Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the author and a founding editor of Ms. Magazine, wrote of her partner in her 2022 memoir, “Shanda.” “He’s a Harvard educated lawyer with a stellar, a long time-very long vocation under his belt, but I have in no way listened to him brag about himself (only about his children, grandkids, and me).”

Bert Pogrebin, a longtime husband or wife at Littler Mendelson P.C. who represented management in labor negotiations and wrote an critical textbook on the subject, died March 25. He was 89.

Pogrebin was also a co-founder and board member of the Appleseed Community, a nonprofit network of 18 public desire justice centers in the U.S. and Mexico founded by users of Harvard Law School’s Class of 1958. Past yr his daughter, the author Abigail Pogrebin, and son-in-law, David Shapiro, created the Bert Pogrebin Appleseed Fund for Justice, concentrating on the organization’s get the job done in New York.

At a memorial provider March 28 at New York’s B’nai Jeshurun congregation, he was remembered by family and close mates from the intersecting worlds of liberal politics, feminism, the legislation and Jewish life, including Hillary Clinton, the actress Marlo Thomas, the singer Peter Yarrow and Rabbis Burton L. Visotzky, Angela Buchdahl and Felicia L. Sol.

“He was there to be supportive of [Letty], but much much more and further: supportive of the sort of world that they both needed for their children and their grandchildren,” Clinton, the former Democratic presidential nominee, secretary of point out and senator from New York, claimed at the memorial service. “And we need folks like Bert far more than at any time.”

Bertrand Pogrebin was born on April 10, 1934 in Brooklyn, the son of Abraham and Esther Pogrebin. The household later on lived in Roosevelt, New Jersey, a rural cooperative community developed by the Franklin Roosevelt administration mostly for Jewish garment staff. “I seasoned anti-Semitism in my rural substantial school, exactly where all the students from my largely Jewish hometown confronted hostility from the young children who weren’t Jewish,” he instructed the Ahead in 2016.

Pogrebin attended Rutgers University and Harvard Legislation School, and for many a long time was a senior spouse at Rains & Pogrebin, a legislation business in the Very long Island suburb of Mineola, New York.

Representing administration as what his daughter Robin joked was the “good person on the bad facet,” he earned a status for fairness and civility that amazed even adversaries. Attorney Bruce Millman recalled working at Pogrebin’s legislation agency and getting taught by his mentor “to generally enjoy and respect… labor and the aspirations of working adult men and women of all ages and to be ethical in all the things we do.”

In her memoir, Letty Pogrebin recalled that as a youthful suitor Bert would choose up a guitar and belt out labor union classics, like “Which Facet Are You On?” and “Solidarity Forever.”

Pogrebin was co-author of “Labor Relations: The Essential Processes, Law and Exercise,” a treatise for legal professionals and regulation college students. He taught labor law at New York College Legislation School, Hofstra University Regulation Faculty and Yale University Law University. He also sat on the board of editors of the New York Regulation Journal.

Mourners at B’nai Jeshurun recounted the highlights of his vocation, but time and yet again returned to the matter of the partnership in between the Pogrebins.

“It’s honestly close to extremely hard to explain their romance, the unadulterated delight in every single other’s enterprise, their mutual admiration, in no way a cruel term, in no way a sliver of daylight involving them,” Abigail Pogrebin recalled in her eulogy. “And no, I didn’t need to have to hear as a lot of moments as I did how attractive mother was.”

He and his wife lived on the Upper West Side starting in 1970, and have a dwelling in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, wherever he handed away.

In addition to his wife and twin daughters, his survivors incorporate a son, David, and six grandchildren.