Plaza at Rutgers Newark Named in Honor of Law School Alumna Elizabeth Blume Silverstein

Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein in 1911 when she graduated from what is now Rutgers Law School.

The Board of Governors voted on Tuesday to renovate and rename a plaza at the Center for Law and Justice at Rutgers Law School in Newark for one of the pioneering woman attorneys in the state.

The plaza in front of the center, located at 123 Washington St. in Newark, will be renamed Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein Plaza.

In 1911, Blume-Silverstein graduated from one of the first classes of what is now Rutgers Law School and went on to run a practice in the city for nearly six decades. She was the first woman attorney in New Jersey to represent a murder suspect (the defendant was acquitted).

By the end of her career, Blume-Silverstein had handled more than 5,000 cases and was a recognized expert in criminal law. She was also a co-founder of the World Jewish Congress in 1936.

Her son, alumnus Nathan Royce Silverstein - a 1960 graduate of Rutgers College and a 1964 graduate of Rutgers Law School - made a $7 million gift to support Rutgers Law School and create the Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein Endowment, with $675,000 of it going toward the plaza renovation.

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