Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Noach Dear has died following a battle with coronavirus, his family said Sunday.
The 66-year-old former City Councilman succumbed to COVID-19 early Sunday, his son-in-law Aron Hirtz told The Post.
Dear served on the New York City Council 1983-2001, representing Midwood and parts of Borough Park and Bensonhurst, before he was elected to the Brooklyn Supreme Court in 2015.
Former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who served in the same Borough Park neighborhood when Dear was a councilman and judge, said Sunday that the justice will be “sorely missed.”
“This is such sad news,” Hikind said in a statement. “Noach was a champion, a friend and fighter for his people and all of his constituents. He especially cared for the voiceless and powerless, and dedicated his every single day to making the world a better place.”
Councilman Kalman Yeger, who now represents Dear’s former district, said the death was “impossible to digest.”
“Compassionate, funny, pragmatic, always patient & loved people,” he wrote on Twitter. “His lifelong public service touched many thousands.”
Gerard Kassar, who is chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, also paid tribute to the justice.
Gerard Kassar, who is chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, also paid tribute to the justice.
“Sorry to hear that Judge and former City Councilman Noach Dear has passed from this awful virus,” Kassar wrote on Twitter. “Knew him for literally decades. May He Rest In Peace. Prayers for him and his family.”
Dear made headlines when he was removed in 2018 from the Brooklyn Civil Court, where despite being on the state Supreme Court, he had been moonlighting two times a week on debt cases.
The Post found that Dear typically sided with those who had failed to pay their credit-card bills and other debts, particularly members of his own Orthodox Jewish community.
Journalist Tom Robbins noted the justice’s sometimes-controversial career when remembering him Sunday on Twitter.
“RIP Noach Dear, the rascally Boro Park politician-turned-judge who beat all the odds except this one,” he wrote. “No matter how many tough stories we tossed his way over the years, he enjoyed the joust and kept his sense of humor.”
New York Post
