Close to one hundred people, including judges and lawyers from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, packed a courtroom to capacity as they gathered to honor the life and legacy of Justice Herbert Kramer at a memorial ceremony held at the Kings County Supreme Court on the second anniversary of the judge’s passing.
The ceremony began with the color guard ceremony and introductions by one of Judge Kramer’s law secretaries who is now a judge herself, Judge Esther Morgenstern. She recounted how Judge Kramer truly cared about the individual standing before him, and his position as judge overseeing a drug court was merely an extension of his commitment to the community even before he took office.
“When I first became his law clerk 30 years ago,” Morgesntern said. “I first learned how involved he was in his community before he was elected, as a community board chair and the founder of a yeshiva for girls in a neighborhood that did not have a yeshiva in the 70’s.”
Morgenstern recounted how she would accompany Judge Kramer to dozens of polling places on election day to ensure they were handicap accessible, because he was inspired by to the Board of Elections case he presided over.
“He cared about the attorneys, his staff, his clerks, his chief clerk, and the people who appeared before him… Judge Kramer respected women and this all stemmed from his deep love and respect he had for his wife, Irma.”
Justice Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Kings County administrative judge for civil matters, spoke of how Judge Kramer cared about the individual: “When we were going through the foreclosure crisis, he was concerned that people were going to lose their houses, that houses would be boarded up, and what that would do to communities.”
She continued to describe how he commanded respect of all of his colleagues, as he advocated for higher salaries for judges, and as he successfully petitioned to have the weekend retreats for judges moved to accommodate the religious holidays for the Orthodox Jewish judges. “He understood that everyone had a place and that everyone’s place was to be respected.”
Hinds-Radix also recounted the respect Judge Kramer held for his wife, and evoked laughter when she told how he would occasionally say his wife is expecting him at home so he can peel potatoes. Turning to the Kramer family, Hinds-Radix said, “He left this world too soon. Thank you, Mrs. Kramer, for the time you loaned him to us.”
The remarks by the judges who took to the podium painted the picture of a leader who was described by several as a “trailblazer,” whether it was in being the first Orthodox Jewish judge in New York, ensuring handicap accessibility at polling places, or working tirelessly to clear the court calendar.
Judge Kramer’s lifelong friend, Justice David Friedman, associate justice of the New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, noted that the room was full of a lot of busy people from the legal community (including Justices Martin Schulman and Martin E. Ritholtz, both from Queens).
“They come to show respect for a great and special individual,” Friedman said. “There was much to learn from Judge Kramer and the examples he set remains a source of inspiration and a resource from which to learn. He was and remains a great role model. Three times a day we pray that the Almighty restore our judges as in earlier times. Justice Kramer was a judge in our time who approached this standard by his wise and just rulings.”