Judge Simcha (Scott) Andrew Dunn ascended to the 11th District of the New York Supreme Court, as one of 58 justices, in a very personal ceremony on Thursday evening, April 18, on the atrium stage at the Helen Marshall Cultural Center at Queens Borough Hall amongst family and friends.
I was privileged to be invited, where I sat alongside community activists. Simcha’s brother, Matthew Dunn, a partner at Manhattan’s Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, acted as Master of Ceremonies, HaRav Yaakov Bender shlit”a delivered the invocation, and remarks were delivered by Rep. Greg Meeks, DA Melinda Katz, Audrey Pheffer on behalf of her daughter Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato, NYC Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, District Leader Shimi Pelman, HALB Principal Richard Altabe, and Eastern District Judge Gary Brown. Following tradition for its Board Members, Dunn was sworn in by Gia Morris, Acting Supreme Court Justice and Chair of the Queens County Brandeis Assoc., beside Bradley Siegel, president of the Assoc., and his parents, following the robe presentation. The Pledge of Allegiance and other entertainment was led by Cantor Joel Kaplan.
On August 23, ahead of the November 2023 elections, Sorolle Idels, Chairperson of the Queens Jewish Alliance, hosted Judge Dunn, a Far Rockaway resident who davens daily with Rav Bender. Raised in the Rockaways, Dunn, now in his early 60s, garnered a love for his faith while regularly attending services at a local Conservative synagogue. While at Beach Channel High School, Dunn spent summers working on an oilrig. By 1981, Dunn had received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and three years after, held a law degree from Fordham University School of Law, achieving status on the Attorney General’s Honors Program, recognized as the nation’s premier entry-level federal attorney recruitment program since inception in 1953. 1989 marked the year of Dunn’s enlistment, becoming an Air Force reservist based out of Ramstein, honorably serving on the ground in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War where he deepened his connection with the Almighty by attending services at the base. He has remained active in veteran affairs. Today, Dunn is a communal asset as Vice President of the JCCRP. He sustains a packed schedule as a committed Daf HaYomi learner who maintaining a chavrusah and attends a halachah lecture, in addition to study time with his children over the week.
While liberating Kuwaitis from Iraq, Dunn was disturbed that his dog tag could not show his Jewish beliefs, as the country forbid entry to Jews. This led Dunn to visit Eretz Yisrael to learn of his heritage; he continued once back in Queens. Rabbonim like Rav Ephraim Buchwald of Aish’s West Side campus, Rav Yosef Kalatsky of Yeshiva Yad Avraham, and others at the West Side Kollel all influenced Dunn, who returned to Israel for several summers at Shappel. By his 2003 discharge, Dunn had rose to the rank of captain and served as an officer in the Medical Service Corps, where he habitually triaged and transferred injured servicemembers.
“Scott really is one who cares and worries about us,” said Rav Bender. Defining emes as “honesty and decency,” bedrocks of the court system, the Rosh HaYeshivah explained the importance of an “intact” and “democratic” judicial enterprise where one can be “tough” when needed, a quality of Dunn’s. The beloved Dean of Yeshiva Darchei Torah spoke of Pesach as a “celebration of the family and of the home,” both representations of Dunn, who is “honest” and “has integrity.” He labeled Dunn a “classic” who “sets the tone for our entire community. The veteran mechanech concluded his incantation with the complete brachah (including the shem Hashem) of Y’varechicha, commonly referred to as the Priestly Blessing from the start of Sefer Bamidbar.
Dunn’s notable colleagues include Kew Gardens Hills community leader Hon. David Kirschner; Hon. Cassandra Johnson, candidate for Surrogate Court; Mojgan Lancman, wife of former NYC Council Member Rory Lancman; Hon. Karen Lin, a November 2023 appointment; and Hon. Lee Mayersohn, son of the late Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn. The New York Supreme Court is one of thirteen judicial districts in the state of New York, and the 11th District, one of New York City’s five judicial districts, includes the Criminal Term and the Civil Term that together form the Queens County Supreme Court. Hon. Shaul Stein and Hon. Ruchie Freier were appointed to Brooklyn’s Supreme Court in the same November election, a feat for the overall Orthodox community.
Previously, Dunn was appointed to Civil Court and later assigned to Criminal Court, initially in an interim capacity, made permanent by Mayor Bill de Blasio in May 2017. Dunn started his career with a three-year stint at the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as Assistant General Counsel, then a similar three years at the Reagan Justice Department, and subsequently served for 28 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he won the Stinson medal for being the most outstanding Assistant U.S. Attorney and reached the height of Chief of Immigration Litigation. New York’s Eastern District is widely regarded for having plentiful immigration cases as the region covers the vastly populated immigrant communities in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island. There, he argued more immigration cases than any other attorney in the nation, and some landed at the Supreme Court, becoming landmark decisions. Matthew, speaking as an active immigration attorney, spoke of his brother as “a behemoth” in its complex world with a prominent record. “No one is as well-known as Scott Dunn in the field of immigration.”
Dunn’s term is set to conclude in 2038, when he will be 77, seven years after the mandatory retirement age of 70. However, extensions allow for justices to continue until 76 years of age.
The pre-Pesach induction was attended by Dunn’s closest family members including his three sons and two daughters led by his wife, Ruchie née Blitz, whom he wed in 2002. The event commenced with a procession of judges, followed by a presentation of colors by the Ceremonial Unit of the NYS Court Officers Assoc., and the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, led by Cantor Joel Kaplan.
Breaking tradition, Dunn opted to speak before the guests to transform the evening into an appreciation for his supporters, a central characteristic of the justice who, according to his brother, spends his days “uplifting others” and amplifying the strength of those he encounters. To celebrate his family and those closest to him, Dunn remained defiant that his brother serve as emcee, passing on having a superstar take the role. Matthew spoke of his brother’s early accolades, like breaking the high school city record for fastest mile run, receiving a student athlete award, and being the first Beach Channel alumnus to continue education at an Ivy League college, namely Cornell, where he made lifelong friendships.
Dunn related the WWII Passover story of Rabbi Eliezer Zusha Portugal, the Skulener Rebbe, from a small town in what was then northeastern Romania (now Ukraine). Toward the end of the war, in March of 1945, he found himself, along with other Holocaust survivors and displaced persons, in the Russian-governed town of Czernovitz, Bukovina. Although Germany would not officially surrender until May 7, much of Eastern Europe had already been liberated by the Russian Army with Pesach just a few short weeks away. Although some traditional foodstuffs might well be provided by charitable organizations, the Rebbe sought to obtain wheat to bake into shmurah matzah. Despite the oppressive economic situation of the Jews, he was able to bake a limited number of these matzahs and sent word to other Chassidic rebbes in the region, offering each of them three - and only three - matzahs. A week before Pesach, Rabbi Moshe Hager, the son of the Seret-Vizhnitzer Rebbe, came for the matzahs that had been offered to his father, Rabbi Boruch Hager. After being handed the allotted three matzahs, he said to the Skulener Rebbe, “I know that you sent word that you could give only three matzahs, but nonetheless my father, the Seret-Vizhnitzer Rebbe, told me to tell you that he must have three matzahs.” The Skulener felt that he had no choice but to honor the request. On the day before Pesach, Reb Moshe returned to the Skulener Rebbe, saying, “I want to return three of the matzahs to you. My father said to ask whether you had saved any of the shmurah matzah for yourself?” Embarrassed, the Skulener replied, “How could I, when so many others needed?” “My father assumed that is what you would do,” explained Reb Moshe. “These three matzahs are for you!” Dunn listed those who have shepherded him through the process and instilled the notions of care and support for others, as together they have attempted “to bring a measure of justice for this world.”
I’ve been honored to work with Judge Dunn for a few years,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz. “You need people on the bench who are even-keeled, who are just, who understand that the first time a lot of people become involved in the criminal justice system, the only thing they leave the criminal justice system with is their opinion of the judge. They count on the judge for fairness, equity, and to know that decisions are being made by an unbiased third party.”
Selvena Brooks-Powers of the 31st NYC Council District delivered a powerhouse speech, noting that Dunn’s reservist work “required the highest levels of compassion and empathy,” explaining that “they are traits desperately needed in our judicial system today, more than ever.”
Fresh off a flight from D.C., Rep. Greg Meeks took the stage. With his work as an Assistant District Attorney and for the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for NYC prior to joining the Investigations Commission on official misconduct and organized crime, Meeks is well-versed in the world of courts. Meeks discussed the issues of placing Queens County residents into vacancies when they arise in criminal and family court, where the mayor has jurisdiction over the placement. “It is rare that we make exceptions. But, when you meet someone who is exceptional, exceptions are made for exceptional individuals,” added Meeks, speaking of Dunn as one with “the highest integrity, a good heart, understands the law, and wants to do the right thing.”
Dunn represents “the best of what we offer to the world,” said Kew Gardens Hills District Leader Shimi Pelman. “As Criminal Court justice, he understood what was good and bad. As a Supreme Court justice, he is doing that also, and hopefully next year as an Appellate Court justice, he will bring to this country and state an outstanding leadership.”
HALB Principal Richard Altabe addressed Queens’ unique unity with the same message he offered his students regarding Israel. “What we need to do, because we can’t do anything about what’s going on over there, is to stay unified, because in unity there is strength.” The same unity is what got Dunn elected to this position, as it took galvanizing the Far Rockaway Jewish community, repeatedly asking Congress Member Meeks, and ultimately staging a write-in vote garnering a historic 300 votes that brought about this day.
US District Judge Gary R. Brown, nicknamed “Downtown Gary” by Dunn back in 1989 when they met in the Civil Courts, bonding “like high school with law degrees.” Brown revealed that while at Cornell, Dunn attempted to undertake a summer job at a New Orleans oil rig for high pay. Without a job available, he settled for consignment as a Good Humor ice cream salesman, but ended up giving out the treats free to the destitute children of the city. The next day, the moms, unwilling to accept a handout, paid Dunn back with buckets of chicken, fried gumbo, and more. When things looked bleak, the group magically got oil rig jobs, earning enough to repay the ice cream debt. Dunn “always does the right thing, even if he does it in a strange way.”
By Shabsie Saphirstein
