COMMUNITY

Rachel E. Freier

Judge

Famously dubbed as the "Hasidic Super Woman of Night Court" by the New York Times after she became one of the first Hasidic female lawyers in Brooklyn in 2005, Rachel E. Freier has spent much of 2020 assisting women in the New York City borough’s heavily Jewish neighborhoods as the coronavirus pandemic has spread. Now a judge on the New York City Criminal Court, Freier is a founder of the newly-created Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance corps, the first of its kind composed entirely of women in the Orthodox Jewish community. It was Freier – the only Hasidic woman on the Criminal Court bench – who led the fight for Ezras Nashim to secure an ambulance for its work. Ezras Nashim says that its existence “makes women feel comfortable and more willing to call for help – no woman should delay calling for help.” (Photo: Touro College & University System / Screenshot)