By:Carrie James
Women's History Month Profile
Justice Zelda Jonas of Bellmore has been making legal history for almost five decades
At 70 years old, State Supreme Court Justice Zelda Jonas still feels the same love for the legal profession she did almost 50 years ago when she first entered Brooklyn Law School.
"Ever since I was 8 or 9 years old, I wanted to be a lawyer," Jonas of Bellmore said. "I wanted to be totally independent. At the time, I had no plans of getting married. I just wanted to do something where I didn't have to rely on anyone else's authority."
Active with several legal organizations, and willing to help those in need, Jonas has received many honors for her service in law, including the prestigious Norman F. Lent award, which the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County gave to her in 1999. She received the award on her anniversary of passing the bar exam.
Jonas, who was born in the Bronx and grew up on Long Island, was only one of six women in her class at Brooklyn Law School, and she has stayed in touch with all of them. When Jonas was a student, the chosen profession for women was a teacher, a line of work her father had wanted her to pursue.
"My father didn't want me to go to law school," she said. "He felt I wouldn't be able to get a job. He wanted me to be a schoolteacher, because it was the choice profession for women at the time. He felt I wouldn't get married. Who would want to marry a female lawyer? It was a very outlandish idea for a woman at the time."
Jonas, like the other five women in her class, wanted desperately to join the legal profession, however. "At that time, we really didn't consider a lot of the things that happened to us," she said. "When we went to law school, you had to sit in the second row, basically so your legs wouldn't show. I remember not being allowed into the men's lounge area, and there really wasn't any women's lounge."
While she was studying to pass the bar exam as a lawyer, Jonas married her husband, Milton. They have two daughters and two grandchildren.
After graduating in 1953, Jonas worked for a lawyer in his tiny, tiny office as his law clerk. She worked hard to balance her married and professional lives and has achieved success in both.
Jonas' next step as a female lawyer, and a landmark in Nassau County history, was to be appointed law assistant to County Court Judge Norman Lent Sr. "As far as I know, I was the first woman appointed as a law assistant to a county court," she said. "Judge Lent had the courage to hire a woman in 1955."
Perhaps the most enjoyable step in Jonas' journey to Supreme Court justice was her stint in the criminal division of the Legal Aid Society in the New York City. She joined the Legal Aid staff in 1976 and spent many hours in a courtroom.
"It was one of the most incredible jobs I had, and I will always be thankful for my work for legal aid," Jonas said. "It was really an experience. It was a very different experience than what I had been doing in the suburbs. It was great to be on trial in a court room every day."
In 1986, Jonas got the chance to run for district court judge and took it, despite her love of being a trial lawyer. She served as a district judge for five years before running for a county judgeship, which she held for seven years.
Jonas won a seat on the State Supreme Court in 1999, and she handles primarily civil cases now, although when she first started she heard matrimonial cases.
"It was difficult," she said, especially the divorce cases involving child custody. "That has to be one of the most difficult decisions in a judge's life, and it's very fluid. It's hard not to get caught up in the emotions that are created in a matrimonial case."
Those close to her say Jonas has always been a wonderful person as well as judge. Fellow Supreme Court Justice Ira Wexner said she's a very capable judge who has served the people well during her tenure.
"She's a very nice, very understanding woman," he said. "She's sincere, and that's the way I've always found her."
Jonas notes that women have come a long way in the legal profession, but not all the way. "Young men today are used to having women that are supervisors and associates that are also women," she said. "It's a reflection of society. What amazes me is that I am still finding little girls who are amazed that women are judges. There is something still prevailing that says things are different for a woman."
