Professor Aaron Twerski Reflects on Breaking Stereotypes at JITC’s Jewish Media All-Star Award Event

Professor Aaron Twerski, the Irwin and Jill Cohen Professor of Law and a preeminent authority in the areas of products liability and tort law, spoke about the importance of breaking stereotypes at an event where he was honored with the Jewish Media All-Star Award. 

The award was presented by the Jewish Institute for Television and Cinema (JITC) at its 2nd Annual Jewish Media Awards in November. On Jan. 20, the organization shared a moving video clip of Twerski’s acceptance speech. A prolific scholar and longtime faculty member who has taught Torts and Product Liability classes at Brooklyn Law for nearly 40 years, Twerski spoke candidly about breaking stereotypes and challenging assumptions about what Orthodox Jews look like, how they think, and where they belong. 

After starting out as a teaching fellow at Harvard School of Law, where he excelled, the program director told Twerski that he would not get a job because of the way he looked.  

“Over the years, I’ve had a star-studded career…everything I was challenged with, thank God I was successful,” Twerski said. “But it almost never happened.” 

After graduating from Marquette University Law School, Twerski’s first faculty position was at Duquesne University School of Law, a Jesuit school like Marquette, which reached out to him to fill a vacancy. In addition to teaching at Brooklyn Law, he also has taught and served as dean at Hofstra Law School, and as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and Cornell law schools.  

“I broke every concept of what they thought an Orthodox Jew and a Hasidic Jew would look like. I broke the stereotypes…When I walk in today, to Brooklyn Law School, where I am still teaching, I broke stereotypes,” Twerski said, to cheers from the audience.  

A Decorated Scholarly Career  

This new accolade is only the most recent for Twerski, whose work was honored and discussed by a gathering of national scholars at the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law Annual Symposium in 2023. 

In 2019, he was honored by Marquette Law School with a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Twerski’s numerous writings include serving as co-reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law (Third) Torts: Products Liability. For his distinguished performance, the ALI named him the R. Ammi Cutter Reporter in 2016. 

In 2015, Twerski received the prestigious William L. Prosser Award from the American Association of Law School’s Torts and Compensation System Section. The award honors torts professors who have made an outstanding contribution to the law of torts during their career.  

In 2007, the American Bar Association's Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section honored Twerski with the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award, which recognizes law professors who are committed to the advancement of justice, scholarship, and the legal profession in the fields of tort and insurance law.  

In addition to his scholarly work, Twerski has been a cherished professor whose lessons stayed with students long after graduation. Generations of Brooklyn Law students remember the axioms he shared in class such as “the butterfly test,” in which Twerski would tell students that for a judge to decide certain issues, he or she must get butterflies in the stomach due to the sheer discomfort of making a powerful call.   

Read more about Twerski, his work and his teaching style here.