At 92, judge who defied Trump brings Torah ethos to Maduro trial
By Jan Wolfe
January 6 (Reuters) – The 92-year-old judge presiding over the case of Nicolas Maduro said he displayed a Hebrew inscription from the Torah on the wall of his Manhattan office: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” – “Justice, you will pursue justice.”
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew who has served on the bench for nearly three decades, has been outspoken about how he seeks to promote justice and the influence of his faith on his legal philosophy.
Hellerstein opened the court hearing Monday by saying he wants a fair trial for the ousted Venezuelan leader, who pleaded not guilty Monday to narco-terrorism charges.
“This is my job and this is my intention,” Hellerstein said.
SEVENTH DAY THINKS
Hellerstein said in a 2020 podcast that he scheduled sentencing hearings on Fridays so that he could spend the Jewish Sabbath from sundown Friday through Saturday evening considering whether his prison sentence was appropriate.
Hellerstein had ruled against President Donald Trump in recent years. He also expressed his belief that lawyers do not best serve their clients.
In a 2013 law review article, he wrote that some lawyers were “outraged” and accused him of “arrogance of power” when he rejected a $675 million settlement negotiated 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 there was no law or rule clearly stating whether the agreement needed his approval, he had the authority to reject it as inadequate.
Lawyers eventually offered Hellerstein a new settlement that added $125 million to victims.
Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner, who observed Hellerstein on the stand, said Hellerstein “was a man of strong beliefs and was trying to find a way to bring the law into line with his sense of justice.”
Hellerstein spoke candidly about how Jewish values influenced his decision-making process.
“I think everything I do as a judge and as a Jew reflects God and impacts His image,” he wrote in his 2013 essay.
In a 2020 podcast, Hellerstein said he believed he was “the first Orthodox kid in New York City to work for a non-Jewish or Jewish firm.”
“I am pleased to say that there were others after me, and some claimed that I broke precedent,” Hellerstein said.
Hellerstein already had a long career before President Bill Clinton nominated him to the federal bench in 1998.
Hellerstein served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, the legal arm of the United States Army, from 1957 to 1960.
In 1960, Hellerstein joined the now-defunct firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and spent most of his career working there.
A history of rebuking TRUMP’S LEGAL GMBITS
In a high-profile case in 2020, Hellerstein ordered the release of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after Trump’s Justice Department sought to lift his house arrest and send him back to prison.
Hellerstein concluded that the Trump administration retaliated against Cohen for writing the book.
In 2023, Hellerstein rejected Trump’s request to move the New York criminal case over his hush-money payment 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 attempt to use wartime law to send alleged gang members to Venezuela, saying they had been improperly challenged in court.
“This is the United States of America,” he said. “People are being kicked out of the country because of their tattoos.”
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
