Judge Scott (Simcha) Dunn Nominated for NYS Supreme Court

By Reuvain Borchardt

NEW YORK — Judge Scott (Simcha) Dunn, a member of the Far Rockaway Orthodox Jewish community who currently serves as a Criminal Court judge, has been nominated for New York State Supreme Court justice by the Queens Democratic and Republican party leadership.

Dunn, 63,  joins Judges Saul (Shaul) Stein and Rachel (Ruchie) Freier of Brooklyn, who were nominated by Democratic Party leadership, as this year’s third Orthodox nominee to the Supreme Court. While there are no official statistics, it is widely believed by community activists and political insiders that this is the first year there are three Orthodox nominations to the Supreme Court, New York’s trial-level court.

There are no primary elections for nominations to the Supreme Court. Rather, the nominees are chosen by a vote of the party district leaders, an unpaid elected position, with one male and one female district leader in each of the borough’s Assembly districts. Dunn, Stein and Freier are each expected to easily win their general elections in November and be sworn into office in January.

Dunn graduated Cornell University in 1981 and Fordham Law School three years later. From 1984 to 1987, he worked at the agency then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (which closed in 2003 and its work was split among several other agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]).

He served in the Reagan Justice Department from 1987 to 1989, then embarked on a 28-year career at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, rising to become chief of immigration litigation. The EDNY has one of the busiest immigration shops in the nation, as it includes JFK Airport, and large immigrant population in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island. In 2017, he was appointed to Criminal Court by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Immigration is really the crossroads of the human element and law enforcement,” Dunn says, in an interview Sunday with Hamodia. “On one hand you’re dealing with people who want what our grandparents wanted — a better life — and to the extent the law allows, you want to help them. On the other hand, sometimes you’re dealing with terrorists, who want nothing less than to destroy us, and you have to stop them. That’s why it was so interesting.”

The nature of the job can at times make for heart-wrenching decisions.

“Immigration law is strict and sometimes it doesn’t really allow for exceptions,” he says. “But I’ve never found a case where you can’t help somebody somehow – even if you just can’t find a way to help them in that particular situation, you can still treat them with respect and dignity. And that’s very important when you can’t find any other way to help somebody.”

With migrants and the border atop the headlines in New York City and across the nation, what does the former immigration prosecutor think of one of the most contentious debates roiling the nation?

“It’s very important to have orderly administration of the laws to make sure we’re safe and don’t have chaos,” he replies. “But I think it’s also important to remember where our families came from and that there are others who also just want to make better lives for their families, and within the context of the law, we should be sensitive to that.”

Dunn grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in Rockaway, regularly attending temple. He was a reservist in the Air Force from 1989 until 2003 and reached the rank of captain, serving as a Medical Service Corps officer, triaging and transporting wounded soldiers.

Serving in combat during Operation Desert Storm led Dunn to his religious awakening.

“After Desert Storm, it seemed very important to everyone else that I was Jewish; I really stood out,” he recalls. “They had a place for services – the same room was used as a first mosque, then synagogue and then a church. I was one of the few Jews who attended.”

Jewish soldiers were issued dog tags while in Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. military was based, and then in Kuwait, that did not say they were Jewish, as those countries did not permit Jews to enter.

“I remember that Rav Noach Weinberg used to say, ‘Before you know what you’re supposed to live for, you have to know what you’re supposed to die for.’ And I remember thinking, ‘I’m here in Kuwait, to liberate an Arab country that doesn’t even allow me to be here? This is not what I want to die for.”

Immediately after the war, Dunn visited Israel, and when he returned to New York, he began learning seriously: first with Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, then at Aish on the West Side, later with Rabbi Yosef Kalatsky at Yeshiva Yad Avraham, and then in the West Side Kollel. He also spent several summer’s at Shappel’s in Yerushalayim.

In 2002, at the age of 42, Simcha, by then an Orthodox ben Torah, met and married Ruchie Blitz. “I wasn’t raui (worthy) of my wife until then,” he says. “For me, it’s still a work in progress.” Though 13 years his junior, Ruchie had been dating unsuccessfully for a frustrating decade. “Her rav had encouraged her, saying, ‘There’s a guy out there waiting for you, but he has to speed up,’” Simcha says. “When we finally met, he said he was mad at me for taking so long!”

The couple spent shanah rishonah in Har Nof, where Simcha learned in Machon Shlomo. They had their first daughter there, then moved to Far Rockaway, where four more children followed.

Dunn’s oldest daughter has just graduated seminary. He’s proud that his 11-year-old son chooses to wear long peyos. Dunn attends a Daf Yomi shiur every morning before heading off to don his black robe on the bench, then at night has a chavrusa and attends a halacha shiur. He learns with his three sons several times a week.

Mandatory retirement for Supreme Court justices is at 70 years old, but they can receive extensions up to 76.

Though Dunn was late to Orthodoxy, late to marriage and is one of the oldest nominees for state Supreme Court, he counts his blessings every day.

“I could never have imagined, now over 30 years since Desert Storm, that I would have the wonderful wife and family that I have, and be blessed to live in such an extraordinary and caring community as Far Rockaway – a place of Torah, kedushah (holiness), chesed (kindness) and achdus (unity),” he says. “And with this latest incredible bracha, all we can say is, ‘Thank you, Hashem.’”

The district leaders who boosted Dunn told Hamodia they are pleased they were successful in getting him nominated.

“He is a fair, Torah-minded individual,” says Shimmy Pelman, a Central Queens community activist. “The nomination was well deserved. He was a combat veteran, serving in Desert Storm and retiring as a captain. And he is a pillar of the Far Rockaway community.”

“Judge Dunn is a person with integrity and compassion, making him an ideal candidate for this esteemed position,” says Far Rockaway Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato. “I am honored to have played a role in his nomination, and I am so proud that he has come this far.”

Supreme Court is divided into several areas of law, called parts. Asked in which part he’d like to serve, Dunn smiles.

“Wherever they put me is fine,” he says. “I’m just delighted to have gotten through.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com