A growing, albeit unheralded cadre of Orthodox judges in New York’s court system — some of them top-ranking — might have diverse judicial styles, but they have earned sterling reputations for integrity, scholarship, fairness, and excellence in the law that do their community proud, one case at a time.
They don’t see each other often except at an occasional dinner or convention but there is a definite sense of camaraderie among the significant albeit unheralded contingent of Orthodox judges presiding on the bench in New York’s court system.
As my whirlwind excursion into the world of frum jurists proceeded apace a clear portrait emerged of a group of men and women who are diverse in judicial style in the courts on which they sit and even in the part of the Orthodox community with which they affiliate — yet are united in their integrity scholarship and insistence upon equality before the law.
It was the photo shoot toward the end of my meeting with Judge David Friedman of the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Manhattan that perhaps best captures a sense of this top-tier jurist. Mishpacha’s photographer was snapping photos of the judge at a table on which lay a gavel inscribed with the words “tzedek tzedek tirdof (pursue justice).” The photographer asked Judge Friedman to lift the gavel and bring it down on the table.
But the judge balked.
“Just once your honor — for the picture spread” the photographer cajoled. But the judge politely demurred explaining that this isn’t that kind of court; he doesn’t preside over trials where proceedings are concluded with the bang of the gavel. It just doesn’t accurately convey the reality of what he does here in this appeals court — it isn’t in a word emesdig. Perhaps not sheker but not quite emes either.
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