Jewish Photo Heroine Ruth Gruber Dies at 105

by Celina Huynh

Ruth Gruber, beloved photographer and author, passed away on Thursday in her Manhattan home at the age of 105. Ms. Gruber lived through horrendous times of injustice, and she made it her objective to chronicle the Jewish struggle. As a journalist with a mission, she said, “I had two tools to fight injustice - words and images, my typewriter and my camera.” With her bag of tools, Ms. Gruber documented Nazi life in Germany, the deplorable conditions of Jewish refugee ships, and the Nuremberg war-crimes trials. During President Roosevelt’s term in 1944, she escorted 984 refugees to America; and in her lifetime, wrote nineteen books based on her experiences as a photojournalist and human rights activist. Ruth Gruber was truly a heroine who was always outfitted for the battle against evil and injustice. May she rest in peace.