With Simcha Felder leaving the City Council to go to the Comptroller’s Office (good luck Simcha!), there has been a lot of speculation about who is going to run for Simcha’s City Council seat. One name that has surfaced as a possible replacement for Simcha is Noach Dear.
Although Noach served in the City Council many years ago, I do not believe that a run for the City Council would be wise at this point. In fact, it would prove to be harmful to the Orthodox community.
Not that long ago, Noach was elected to serve as a New York State Civil Court Judge. Our community spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect him because we needed a frum Judge. As a judge, Noach is responsible for overseeing a wide variety of cases in the court, including the critical issues in today’s economy – debtor and creditor issues and foreclosures! People from Brooklyn’s frum communities of Borough Park, Flatbush, and Midwood appear before Judge Noach Dear on a regular basis, and we count on him to administer fair and compassionate justice. As a Judge, Noach understands the unique needs of the frum community, and having him on the Civil Court bench is vital. In today’s difficult economic times, many members of our community are unfortunately facing housing and foreclosure issues. Having Judge Dear in the courthouse looking out for our needs is invaluable, and to lose him as a judge would be devastating.
As far as I know, each of the other possible candidates to replace Simcha Felder in the City Council is frum. Each one is from our community, and presumably each one would be a good advocate for us in the City Council. Under the circumstances, we do not need Noach Dear to throw his hat into the ring as well. If he resigns as a judge to run for the City Council, the odds are that his replacement as a Civil Court Judge would not come from the frum community. His replacement would not be familiar with our community, and would probably not be as focused as Noach is on helping our community whenever possible. Not to mention, we would have wasted the hundreds of thousands of dollars we spent to elect him in the first place for the ten year term (Noach has only served two of the ten years)!
We need Noach Dear in the Civil Court, not in the City Council. Even though we will be losing our beloved Councilman Simcha Felder to the Comptroller’s office, his replacement will inevitably be a member of the frum community and someone who we know we can count on to fight for us. But if Noach Dear walks away from his judgeship, our community will be faced with the prospect of appearing in court before a judge who does not know or understand our community. The consequences of such a thing could be dire and could negatively impact our community. The best thing for our community is for Noach to remain a judge and watch over us in court, and for another member of our community to fight for us in City Hall.
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
(Yanky Goldberg – YWN)
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14 Responses
Judges are not supposed to be on the bench looking out for a particular community’s best interests! They are supposed to be unbiased arbiters of the law.
i agree, Go Greenfield!
Why aren’t you concerned about the thosands of dollars spent to reelect Simcha Felder. We voted for him for a whole term and he is turning his back on us. You call it Felder’s seat, I call it Noach Dear’s seat, he was there before Simcha. I do not see how Noach Dear understands my way of life since he appears to be modern Othodox.
How much was spent to elect Simcha Felder to the office he is now abandoning in favor of his new job in the Comptroller’s office?
Without taking a stand on who should be filling Felder’s soon-to-be-empty seat, we should realize that politicians, including frum politicians, usually act in their own self-interest. They do not sign contracts with the tzibur that paid to elect them to stay in office for a full term. And anyone who donated money to Dear’s campaign with that condition in mind is naive at best.
So, it’s open season for the open seat, and that’s fine. I urge all candidates, however – and especially the frum candidates – to keep their campaigns clean and honorable. Early indications are that some of the candidates will succumb to the temptation to do otherwise, creating a chillul Hashem and harming the cause of the frum tzibur rather than helping it.
This is something that we citizens *can* do something about. If a candidate crosses the line let’s *all* make it clear to him that, on that basis alone, and regardless of any other factors, he will automatically lose our support.
Yanky Goldberg’s opinions regarding Noach Dear should stay put and it’s none of his business how people want to spend their own money.
In case Yanky Goldberg doesn’t know it, political contributions must come from private funds and are not tax deductible. So come off with the “community funds” tirade Yanky while promoting your own candidate; try some other line.
3. How do you define Modern Orthodo? Do you know Noach Dear personally? I worked with R’ Meshalam
Noach’s father & have seen Noach daven Mincha in Stolin quite a few times they dont fit my definition of Modern Orthodox.
Mr. Goldberg can you please define what you mean by saying that Mr. Dear is protecting us in “civil court”? How R’ Noach deals with cases between 2 jews is someone he has to ask his Rav.
How he deals in cases where one litigant is a Jew & the other a non-Jew is something that he has to ba,ance between hus comitment to the people of NYS & halcha. His personal problem, but where do I
come into the picture? How is he looking after my interests? It is a job like any other.
It would be a terrible mistake for Noach to give up the bench.
He is doing a fabulous job as judge and helping many needy and poor people who are looking for a compassionate and just judge. Because of this, he is also making a Kiddush Hashem, the NY Times and the village voice, (hardly friends of frum people) have written very positively about his conduct as judge. Google it. You’ll see.
Why does he want to give up his judgeship? Noach is not from a “modern” family. I wouldn’t quite call him modern and I believe I am qualified to say so because my family knows him very well from many eons ago.
I cannot think of a better candidate for City Councilman than Noach Dear!!! I am not “frum” but I live in the community and I cannot wait until he is back on the City Council. Noach definitely has my vote and the votes of everybody in my family! I will support his City Council run financially and in whatever way I can. Go Noach!!!
Support my candidacy. Based on the comments so far I meet all requirements. I’m frum and I didn’t make you spend money on any of my previous campaings for office that I am giving up midstream.
Noach would be foolish to give up his judicial appointment and face a probable loss. He isn’t “squuky clean” and the press will dig and dig.
IMHO, Noach should stay right where he is, if for no other reason then ברי ושמא ברי עדיף. You have a secure job for the next 8 year’s. Another run at your old seat, history has shown is a long shot. Whatever you decide, you should have Hatzlacha.
not sure where you all get your information from, but under no law does noach have to step down as judge, just take a leave of absence. he is allowed to run for any office as a city civil justice, as he will technically need to run for that exact office in 8 years shall he choose to. the author of this op-ed, and all the subsequent posters are very mistaken in thinking that noach needs to give up his judgeship.
that said, i think if he does run, it is because hikind pushes him to, because though dov hates noach, he hated david greenfield more, since david will be an actual advocate for us, and not an absentee politician like dov is, and like noach was!
My Family and I are all voting for Jonathan Judge in this election, I think he will be a strong advocate for us, I know from my dealing with him in the 70 pct community council, and from the community board which he works, hard for our community from