Jane Wolfe
Jan 6 (Reuters) – The 92-year-old judge in Nicolas Maduro’s case said he displayed a Hebrew verse from the Torah on the wall of his Manhattan courtroom: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” – “Justice, justice you should pursue.”
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew who has been on the bench for nearly three decades, has been outspoken about his efforts to promote fairness and the impact of his faith on his judicial philosophy.
Hellerstein told a court hearing on Monday that he wanted a fair trial for the ousted Venezuelan leader, who pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges on Monday.
“That’s my job and that’s my intention,” Hellerstein said.
On the seventh day he meditated
Hellerstein said in a 2020 podcast that he scheduled his sentencing hearing for Friday so he could reflect on the appropriateness of his prison sentence on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath that runs from sunset on Friday to dusk on Saturday.
Hellerstein has ruled against President Donald Trump in recent years. He also speaks out when he thinks a lawyer is not serving a client best.
In a 2013 law review article, he wrote that some lawyers were “outraged” and accused him of an “abuse of power” when he rejected a $675 million settlement between New York City and injured first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Hellerstein concluded that, although no statute or rule specified whether the transaction required his approval, he had inherent authority to reject the transaction because it was insufficient.
Lawyers eventually offered Hellerstein a new settlement that added $125 million for the victims.
Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor who observed Hellerstein on the bench, said Hellerstein “was a man of deep convictions who sought to find a way to reconcile the law with his understanding of justice.”
Hellerstein spoke candidly about how his Jewish values influence his decision-making.
“As a judge, and as a Jew, I believe that everything I do reflects God and affects His image,” he wrote in the 2013 article.
In a 2020 podcast, Hellerstein said he believed he was “the first Orthodox boy in New York City to be employed by a non-Jewish or Jewish company.”
“I’m happy to say that there were others after me, some who thought I broke precedent,” Hellerstein said.
Hellerstein had already had a long career before President Bill Clinton nominated him to a federal judgeship in 1998.
From 1957 to 1960, Hellerstein served in the Judge Advocate General’s Office, the legal branch of the United States Army.
In 1960, Hellerstein joined the now-defunct firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where he spent most of his career.
A history of condemning Trump’s legal tactics
In a high-profile case in 2020, Hellerstein ordered the release of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the Trump Justice Department attempted to revoke his home confinement and return him to prison.
Hellerstein concluded that the Trump administration was retaliating against Cohen for writing the book.
In 2023, Hellerstein rejected Trump’s request to move his New York criminal case involving hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to federal court. Trump was tried in state court and found guilty of 34 felonies.
In May 2025, Hellerstein rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to use wartime laws to send alleged gang members to Venezuela, saying the men were improperly denied access to court.
“This is the United States of America,” he said. “People are being kicked out of the country because of tattoos.”
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)