Trial by Fire   

When Federal Claims Court Judge Matthew Solomson was first appointed to the bench, he was concerned about the ramifications of wearing his yarmulke: In such a high-profile position, with billions of dollars often at stake, might it be cause for a chillul Hashem? Today, though, he’s more interested in kiddush Hashem, having brought a group of federal judges to Israel to bear witness to an enemy’s unthinkable atrocities

Over the months since October 7, the tortured remnants of the Gaza border kibbutzim have become Exhibit A in Israel’s battle for the narrative about the justice of the ongoing war. Among the world leaders and influencers pilgrimaging to the site of horrors, though, few were as closely-connected to the cause of justice itself as the group who visited in recent days.

Headed by Federal Claims Court Judge Matthew Solomson, an Orthodox Jew, more than a dozen US federal judges converged on Israel last week to discuss the country’s legal system and military compliance with international law, but mostly, to see up-close the aftermath and fallout of the Hamas massacre and the IDF’s unprecedented and unenviable challenges in ferreting out a terror infrastructure among a civilian population.

Solomson, who organized the trip alongside Judges Roy Altman of the Southern District of Florida and Lee Rudofsky of the District of Arkansas, explained the importance of “bearing witness to the atrocities.”

Actually, the judges’ journey to Israel was on the table last summer, although not for the purpose it eventually served. Back then (if our memories can stretch just a bit beyond October 7), Israeli society was deeply divided over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s push for judicial reform. This dispute had become the talk of legal circles worldwide, prompting Judge Solomson’s desire to grasp firsthand what was at stake. While the massacre of October 7 might have derailed the original plan, over time Judge Solomson realized there was a new and more urgent reason to travel to Israel.