Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York to Evelyn (née Bayer) and Morris Ginsburg, a department store executive. He grew up in Rockville Centre, Long Island , where he attended South Side High School. His family was Jewish. Ginsburg earned a B.A. from Cornell University in 1953 and a J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1958. He was a star on Cornell's golf team. After finishing a year at law school, Ginsburg married Joan Ruth Bader in 1954, after her graduation from Cornell. That same year, Ginsburg, an ROTC officer in the Army Reserve, was called up for active duty and stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Ginsburg had an undergraduate training in chemistry. In 1956, he returned to law school, and his wife also entered Harvard Law School. During his third year at Harvard, Ginsburg endured two operations and radiation therapy to treat testicular cancer.