Meet two Jewish candidates running for judge

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University, Ilan Zur decided he wanted to go to law school with the intention of becoming a prosecutor of homicide cases.

“I wanted to be a voice for those impacted by violence,” he said.

Bryan Neft earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Boston University’s School of Law.

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“Judges,” he said “are in a unique position. They don’t really engage in policy, but they can develop resources to fix a problem that may be present in a given case.”

Both Neft and Zur are candidates for judge of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

Neft lives in the South Hills with his wife, Julie. The pair have three grown children, Simon, Justin and Zoe. He has practiced law for more than three decades and served on the legal team that successfully challenged the proposed anti-Israel referendum introduced by Not On Our Dime. If that referendum had been placed on the May ballot, and passed, it would have forced the city of Pittsburgh to divest from Israel and any company doing business with the Jewish state.

Neft also spoke out against a proposed anti-Israel ceasefire resolution Allegheny County Council was considering.

Licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and California, Neft, a litigator with the firm Spilman Thomas & Battle, began his career as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Superior Court. He’s practiced in approximately 30 counties across Pennsylvania and in each of Pennsylvania’s appellate courts.

Zur received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998 before beginning work at the district attorney’s office.

A deputy district attorney and supervisor of the violent crimes and firearms division, Zur lives in Squirrel Hill with his wife, Lisa, and three children, Ellie, Benjamin and Josephine.

“My drive is for public service,” he said. “That’s what motivates me.”

Zur grew up in New York and attended a yeshiva from kindergarten through 12th grade. His Jewish background, he said, has provided a “significant impact” on his life and career.

He said he’s both witnessed and experienced antisemitism and hate.

“It has made more empathetic to those that are discriminated against for things they can’t control,” he said. “It plays a pretty significant role in my job as a prosecutor because a lot of folks that we deal with are from marginalized communities.”

Neft, too, has been influenced by his Jewish background and was a volunteer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division.

He is also a past president of the Allegheny County Bar Association and has dedicated time to many issues that are important to him.

“I was a chair for many years of what we call ‘Attorneys Against Hunger,’” he said. “The campaign has raised over $3 million for hunger relief in Allegheny County.”

Neft said he opened the program up to both the Pittsburgh Greater Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force and what was then the Kosher Super Pantry, now the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.

“I did that because those were two organizations that were doing things that nobody else could do in terms of hunger relief,” he said.

Neft said he’s also worked to make the legal and judicial systems fair for everybody, which he said goes along with the Jewish notion of repairing the world. He was appointed to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s disciplinary board, responsible for discipling attorneys that violate the court’s rules of professional conflict, and the interest on lawyer’s trust accounts board, which raises and distributes funding to legal aid programs across the state. He’s also served on the Allegheny County Bar Association’s gender bias subcommittee.

Both Neft and Zur believe a judge’s role is to look beyond the offense a criminal might commit.

“I think it’s incumbent upon a judge presiding over a case to figure out, if they can, what is driving the criminal behavior,” Zur said. “We know that mental health issues, drug addiction, probably fuel the overwhelming majority of criminal behavior we see in Allegheny County, so I think it’s important to try and see what we are dealing with.”

His view on bail is similar. He agrees with the district attorney’s policy not to ask for cash bail, believing someone shouldn’t be adversely affected by their financial status.

“We look at cases to determine if an individual is a danger to the community, and if that person is a danger to the community, then it’s appropriate that there would be no release,” he said. “Otherwise, if it’s a non-violent offense, then there are conditions that could be imposed such as house arrest.”

Neft, too, believes that it is important to consider all circumstances in a case.

“You don’t want to keep someone in jail unnecessarily, but you have a duty to protect the public from whatever is going on,” he said. “So, you have to be able to gauge all of those factors to be able to come up with what may be a just result.”

That same philosophy extends to each attorney’s thoughts on juvenile justice.

Neft said there should be resources available to help provide stable environments for juveniles who commit crimes while helping to rehabilitate them.

“If they did the crime, they have to atone for that in some way, shape or form,” he said. “When we talk about restorative justice, we have to make sure people pay their dues and that we involve the community and victims in decisions to bring about a favorable result.”

Zur said the juvenile system is primarily meant for rehabilitation rather than punishment, something he supports.

“Each case needs to be analyzed individually, and you have to look at the facts — a person’s history — and then make a determination on what the best response to whatever the conduct is,” he said.

Neft and Zur both believe their experience qualify them for the role of judge and urge voters to evaluate each candidate based on their capabilities and skill. The Allegheny County Bar Association rated both candidates as “highly recommended.”
The primary election takes place Tuesday, May 20. There are 22 candidates running for judge in the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas primary, including several incumbents. Voters can choose up to eight candidates. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.