Preview
Class Year
1919
Description
Rebekah Maxine Paritz, LL.B.
Lexington, Kentucky
Morton High School Club; Secretary Henry Clay Law Society, '18; Vice-President Henry Clay Law Society, '19.
Rebekah is our only girl graduate in the Law Department. Her large brown eyes, together with her eloquence and logic, will convince any jury. If "reason is the life of the law, and law the perfection of reason," we are sure she will be successful in her legal career.
-The Kentuckian, 1919
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Rebekah Maxine Paritz Hyman (June 10, 1897 - July 9, 1989*) was the daughter of Max Paritz and Goldie Lovett (or Lovitz). Her parents were Jewish Russian immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1886. The family lived in New York City for several years before moving to Lexington, Kentucky.** Paritz first practiced law in Lexington after graduating from the University of Kentucky. In the early 1920s, she moved her practice to Cincinnati, Ohio. She married her husband, William Velvel Hyman, in 1924 and the couple began the first husband-and-wife law firm in Ohio. She practiced law with her husband in the firm of Hyman and Hyman for over 50 years. Paritz was highly active in Cincinnati's Jewish community. She was also a member of the Cincinnati Women Lawyers' Club. A memorial scholarship was established in her name by B'nai B'rith Woman, Chapter 140.
*The birth year on Ms. Paritz's burial plot does not match other vital records. Records do not have a firm birth year for her. June 10, 1897 has been selected based on the record of her birth recorded in the available index to New York City Birth Certificates.
**Rebekah Paritz was most likely born in New York City based on available records. Paritz or her husband later self-reported her birthplace as Lexington, Kentucky in census records.
