He attacks Reform Jews for crimes of assimilation having nothing to do with their doctrines, while his co-author Jackie Mason regularly commits the assimilative crime of being the offical Jewish shill for the Christian right.

Felder's racialist bullshit is especially jarring coming from from the brother of blues singer/ R&B songwriter Jerome "Doc Pomus" Felder, a white man who sincerely identified with the black American experience of being an outsider due to his exxperience as a victim of polio.

THIS IS NOT A DON IMUS ISSUE, BUT IT IS EVEN MORE CRITICAL TO SNUFF THESE FLAMES OUT HONESTLY AND RESPECTFULLY FOR “THE BABY” IN THESE WATERS IS THE JUDICIARY’S HONOR ITSELF

Say it ain’t so...
Not after we have just undergone the Don Imus tragedy, and removed him from the airwaves, as required, despite being an important social critic that could parse with the First Amendment sword, unlike any other, public personages and events to the betterment of the Republic.

Here, Jackie Mason is sharp and pointed humor at its painful and equal-opportunity best, and so well loved by his adoring fans who enjoy even self-abuse. I don’t think that folks take Jackie Mason seriously, unlike Don Imus, who also has a sharp rapier of a tongue but who engages in serious talk and serious issues and hence liable for his ignoble picking on tender young women, who have excelled as scholars and athletes. Don Imus was fired for his act was dishonorable per se, if one defines honor traditionally to include: pick on someone your own size. (No wonder warriors of old traversed the battlefield seeking adversaries of similar rank and status to engage, for anything else, including “jumping” on some one without notice and with more manpower was deemed a shameful act that dishonored the warring side and family; a “foul,” if you will, that required banishment from civil society.)

Hopefully, this matter, if predicated solely on the humor book, is respectfully resolved without becoming a firestorm that is all consuming.

Without question, the Commission on Judicial Conduct serves an indispensable function of judicial self-policing, which is vital and essential to maintaining and protecting the noble, honest and hard working judiciary from unhappy litigants and inter alia, those with an axe to grind. In the rare instance when a jurist cross the line or even kisses the line, the CJC has acted vigorously, and some would say over zealously, to issue discipline.

Everyday New Yorkers who look to the courts for impartial, honest merit-based dispute resolution by an independent judiciary, obviously free of bias and conflicts, require the Commission on Judicial Conduct to insure that that implied covenant of the Third Branch to society will be honored, causing our noble judiciary to have societal respect and honor, which they so richly deserve. So, the internal functioning of the CJC is important.

Additionally, this “bad humor” issue must not taint, or distract from, the tender issue of unconstitutional reduction of judicial salary illegally wrought over eight long years. That constitutional crisis must be acted upon or else society will literally bleed judicial independence in the emergency room of separated-powers democracy and destroy the singular act of historic genius that is the legacy of our Founding Fathers: “co-equal,” particularly, the judiciary who are required to say “no” to power without fear or seeking favor from its political co-equals, the executive and legislative. Judicial salary must be restored to its legal level and then some so that the benefits of long term of office is not waived by judges leaving to earn a living wage. Federally, Chief Judge Roberts has issued an alarm that judicial independence is the result of “life tenure,” and with judges exiting in droves judicial independence threatened. One only needs to recall the sad turn of events a couple of years ago when an accomplished jurist before leaving the bench for private employment gave to her future employer-law firm court approved fees in excess of a million dollars, a firm that then hired her as well as contribute well into the six figures for her losing electoral campaign. That does not serve to define the ceiling of judicial independence; indeed, it may pierce the floor of same.

The issues underlying this unprecedented Statement needs emergency help in getting resolved so that it does not consume the bench and bar and cause reputations to be sullied without just cause. Our Founding Fathers held their “sacred honor” above life and property, and it must remains so today if honor is still honor.

Dated: Friday, April 13, 2007
/s/
Ravi Batra

The serious issue, or more serious one to be blunt, is the inertia and inactivity of this Commission on matters of serious public concern that are wholly within its jurisdiction.The most apparent example is now "retired" Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson. I understand that the Commission might choose not to act while a felony charge is pending and awaiting trial, but this Garson was found to have breached his fiduciary duty after a civil trial in Supreme Court.....almost a year before he was indicted on related, but not the same, criminal charges. Despite the fact that he was a sitting judge during this period, Garson did not so much as receive a rebuke from this Commission to date for his civil breach of trust, a breach which resulted in a judge's order to have Garson repay his elderly aunt well over a hundred thousand dollars.

No referral to the Discipolinary Committee for lawyers either, apparantly...as Garson while pending criminal trial, is apparently a licensed attorney, able to practice law.

What gives?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/nyregion/14felder.html?ref=nyregion

Lawyer Attacked for Book His Panel Deems Offensive

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 14, 2007 ALBANY, April 13 — Raoul Felder, a celebrity divorce lawyer who is chairman of a state commission that oversees judges, has been given a unanimous vote of no confidence by the other nine members of the commission for helping to write a book they said is racially and ethnically inflammatory.

In a statement issued Friday, the commission members said the book, which Mr. Felder and the comedian Jackie Mason wrote, “repeatedly invokes racial, ethnic and religious invective.”