Many local residents have likely never heard of Ellen Greenberg, and do not know that she will be on the ballot on Nov. 8.
But Greenberg, an East Hills resident running for re-election after 10 years as a Family Court judge in Nassau County, said the infrequent nature and modest scope of her campaign doesn’t take away from its significance.
“There’s nothing more important to people than their families,” Greenberg said. “Family Court is a special place because it deals with people’s personal lives, often when they’re at a moment of crisis.” Family Courts do not have juries, meaning the judge determines the outcome of a dispute.
Greenberg is running as a Democrat but will also appear on the ballot lines for the Green Party, Working Families Party and Women’s Equality Party.
Her Sept. 13 primary bid for the Reform Party line fell short by one vote.
Due to strict election rules imposed by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Greenberg cannot speak publicly about her views on political or even judicial issues.
When she campaigns, she said, she primarily refers to her past professional experience and her party affiliation.
“I meet constituents at street fairs and fall festivals, and I’ll knock on doors,” she said.
In the Nov. 8 election, four Democrats and four Republicans are competing for four Family Court judgeships.
Family Court judge terms last 10 years, so campaigning is somewhat foreign even to incumbents like Greenberg, who has served one term that began in 2006.
Growing up in North Woodmere, Greenberg said she knew from a young age that she wanted to work in law.
In 1978 she completed undergraduate study at the State University of New York at Albany, where she majored in Spanish. A study abroad trip to the International Institute in Madrid during her junior year inspired a passion for the language and culture that endures to this day.
She received her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in June 1981. In 1985, she took her first job in Family Court as a court attorney in New York County, researching and writing legal memorandums on a host of issues like child custody and visitation to child delinquency.
A little more than a decade later, she became borough chief of the Bronx County Family Court, where she worked until 2006, when she was elected to her first term as a Family Court judge in Nassau County.
She also serves as an acting Supreme Court justice.
Greenberg is the co-chairwoman of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative in Nassau County, a nonprofit organization that identifies and supports programs that help juvenile delinquents rehabilitate outside of detention facilities.
With the exception of adoption cases, Family Court is often tense, said Greenberg.
She specializes in child delinquency and child abuse or neglect cases, both of which deal not only with the transgression at hand but also the familial and social context in which it takes place.
“I always wanted to go into public service,” she said. “I wanted to help communities.”
As for her own participation in the community, Greenberg is an active member of Temple Beth Shalom.
Five years ago, she held a bat mitzvah along with 20 other women who had not received the ritual at the traditional age of 13 due to preferential treatment for boys.
She is married and has a stepson age 27 as well as two sons, age 20 and 22, and a daughter age 18. She said her work on the court has influenced how she approaches her own family, though she was quick to point out that anyone’s job affects the way he or she views life at home.
She did reveal one way that her attitude toward her family matches that toward her work on the court.
Concluding an interview, she said: “I love my job.”
