Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Justice Robert J. Hanophy: Senseless and/or anti-Semite?

Justice Robert J. Hanophy: Senseless and/or anti-Semite?

I don't know anything about Mazoltuv Borukhova and Mikhail Mallayev, the two Orthodox Jews who were sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the murder of Borukhova's husband. I haven't reviewed the evidence, or read the testimony, nor have I been given any reason to doubt the merits of their conviction. This post isn't about them.

Instead, I'd like to draw your attention to their judge, Robert J. Hanophy, who gave observers every reason to believe he suffers from the age-old disease of Jew-hatred. According to the Times, judge Hanophy at first wanted to hear closing statements on Shabbos. When the defendants argued that their religious sensibilities made this impossible the judge relented, but scheduled the arguments in a way that gave the defense just one night to prepare. According to the paper, these maneuvers were made to protect the judge's vacation.

At sentencing, the judge all but confessed his anti-Semitism:
“Mr. Mallayev, you took the 20,000 pieces of silver to murder Dr. Malakov,” the judge said, referring to the $20,000 that prosecutors say Dr. Borukhova paid for the killing. “You say you’re a religious man. There’s a man in the New Testament who says, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loseth his soul?’ ”
What kind of man looks at a Jew and sees Judas? What kind of man challenges a Jew's religiosity by lecturing him about the New Testament?

Answer: A very bad one.

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