Lou Kornreich

I want to preface this chat with the context of how I first met the judge. I'd say it was at a weekly Kiddush after the porch minyan at the home of Shimon and Gilia Posner. They graciously open their home to everyone in the neighbourhood, where a traditional community Kiddush with lots of banter, whisky, herring, kugel, and other delicacies is served. As we call him, the judge mentioned that he didn't initially plan to speak at these Kiddushim, but, prior to October7, people asked for his professional perspective as a judge on the pending court reform and other issues of the day. Gradually, this evolved into an impromptu short talk about current events linked to the weekly parsha and other topics. Today, I attend more for his little talk than for the Kiddush food, so that's the backdrop to this conversation.

We decided to chat at a local branch of Roladin, just a few minutes' walk away, we began talking and he asked about my life leading to a discussion about challenges and how one can grow from them. As the saying goes, you never really know someone's story. We each shared a bit of history and found we had much in common despite our origins on different continents. I'm from South Africa and he is from the U.S.

One observation is that he's incredibly modest. Despite his achievements, it became apparent that as a judge, he specialised in bankruptcy and corporate reorganization. A comment that stood out to me was that it was humbling to work with financially troubled individuals and business entities. In remote northern New England, as in many other places, a company's financial distress often resulted in the loss of jobs and dislocation. In some instances, where an entity was the primary employer in a town, bankruptcy could alter a community forever. Saving those jobs where possible under the relevant law was Important to Lou. This resonated with me.

Interestingly, this is the second chat in this series, and both "characters" were featured in Mishpacha Magazine, which I take as a good sign.

Before our conversation, I researched Lou's background on the Internet. According to his LinkedIn profile:

Lou's professional journey has seen him evolve into an experienced and adaptable mediator, case evaluator, and consultant. His expertise spans bankruptcy reorganisations and complex civil litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and many other jurisdictions. His previous roles as Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine and an Appellate Judge on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit further highlight this adaptability. He was also a Visiting Judge in the Districts of Delaware and New Hampshire. Lou is an author and frequent speaker on mediation, case evaluation, and related topics. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, and a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Lou has advised the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine and the Boston Bar Association on the development of pro bono mediation services during COVID-19 pandemic. He also developed a program to enhance facilitation skills for Subchapter V frustees. Lou has experience in a wide range of industries and is highly knowledgeable in many substantive areas of law. He has been able to use this expertise to assist parties in obtaining acceptable outcomes through mediation. Lou is currently Senior Of Counsel at Berstein, Shur, Sawyer, and Nelson, P.A., a major law firm in Portland, Maine. He sits on the advisory Board of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro University Law School where he was honoured to be a Distinguished Lecturer.

Linkedln Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lou-kornreich/

In Conversation: Background and Introduction

Lou became a baal teshuva after university. After law school and a brief stint in the U.S. Army, he married his first wife, Janet, whom he had met as a counsellor at a Zionist summer camp, the same camp that his brother later directed for 25 years. Lou also has a sister, who, among other things, was the administrative principal of a community Hebrew school.

In 1975, Lou and Janet married and settled in Bangor, Maine, a small, vibrant city with a thriving orthodox community led for 40 years by Rabbi Henry J. Isaacs, a musmach of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. There Lou established his law practice specializing in bankruptcy and corporate reorganizations. Janet became a teacher. Lou said it was a good life: "We had the shul, the mountains, the ocean and challenging work that allowed me to travel."

Janet died at a young age leaving Lou with three young daughters. Three years later in his mid-forties, Lou met his present wife, Patti, through a mutual friend who had set up a match-making business focused upon older orthodox singles in northern New England. Patti had one daughter who was headed to seminary in Israel. She had intended to join her daughter there and make aliya. Six months after meeting, Lou and Patti were married and Patti joined Lou in Bangor. The three younger girls went to high school at Maimonides in Boston. They too went to seminary in Jerusalem and returned to America for university. All four girls are now married with children. Three live in Israel and one resides in the New York area. Lou and Patti remained in Bangor until making aliya in 2022. Of their 14 grandchildren, 11 live in Israel.

Lou served as president of the Bangor shul, the northeastern most orthodox minyan in the U.S., for 33 years. Patti too was actively engaged in community affairs. She also created and managed a non-profit entity that trained high school students to visit dementia patients.

Following the retirement of Rabbi Isaacs in 2001, Lou began giving a parashat shavua shiur on Shabbat mornings. He continued learning and also began teaching Jewish history in the Shul and Jewish philosophy to several individuals (e.g. Moreh Nevuchim, Shemonah Perukim, the Kuzari, 19 Letters). He continues these weekly sessions telephonically with 8 individuals in the U.S. and Israel, including his three oldest grandsons.

Starting out

But I want to backtrack. I asked Lou about his beginnings and progression as a baal teshuva. I focused his attention on the Six-Day War in 1967. He said:

"For me, it was relatively normal—a gradual, rational series of steps. It didn't make sense to persist in the lifestyle I was in. I was neither secular nor observant. With learning, becoming observant was a natural progression.

Career in Law and Becoming a Judge

"In 2001, there was an opening on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine. It was a competitive selection process, but I was fortunate to receive the appointment, one of two such positions in the District of Maine. Moving from a small law firm to being a federal judge was an exciting transition. It gave me more time to think, to write, and to explore the history, philosophy, and literature of the law. I handled small individual cases and large corporate reorganizations. I also served as a visiting Judge in the District of Delaware, the busiest bankruptcy court at the time, and in the District of New Hampshire. Late in my tenure, I sat jointly with a Canadian judge on the case arising from the Lac-Megantic rail disaster.

"Most of my work was as a single judge, though I often sat as one of three appellate judges in Boston and San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit.

Understanding the American Constitution

"The United States is a federal republic with a federal judicial system and a judicial system for each state and Puerto Rico. Under the U.S. Constitution, bankruptcy is exclusively a federal question. This is so because of the disparity in outcomes of the many financial crises occurring in the various states following the American Revolution. The drafters of the American Constitution placed bankruptcy cases under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal court system in an effort to achieve greater uniformity. Indeed, at that moment in time, bankruptcy was very much a hot button issue in the States like abortion and gun control are today (and court reform is in Israel).

Reflections on the Constitution and Biblical Influence

When reading the Constitution, I found it interesting that the Bible influenced it. What is your take on that?

"That's a fascinating question that is asked often. I wore a kippah on the bench in a rural Christian environment, so I had to be conscious of my position. When one presents as a religious personality, one may not let religious notions conflict with civil duties.

"In commercial law, there are many overlaps with halakha. But if faced with a difference, my rulings had to be entirely on American law. If I wanted to think about halakha, I could think about it like I might consider other non-applicable foreign laws, or I might think about philosophy or literature. But my rulings were always on American law.

"The Bible's influence on the Constitution is substantial but indirect. The authors of the Constitution were primarily deists. They believed in God and the Bible but were not necessarily religious. They were what we might call traditionalists in the Jewish world. The concepts of Biblical governance greatly influenced them, but I doubt they set out to adopt biblical precepts as such. For example, they knew of Yitro's recommendations to Moshe, and they may have been influenced by them, but I doubt they intended to adopt Yitro's proposals as such. They didn't say, 'G-d commanded it, so we do it this way.' That wasn't their approach. Surely, the American founders were influenced by the Christian bible, but they also read Greek Philosophy and Enlightenment thinkers like Locke, Hobbes, and Spinoza.

"Another key point is that the American Revolution didn't lead to a legal revolution. The Americans took British constitutional law and restated it, but apart from the elimination of the monarchy, British legal principles remained unchanged. In contrast, revolutions like the French and Russian led to complete legal overhauls, with catastrophic outcomes. The American approach was different—more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Judicial Reform in Israel and Its Parallels with the U.S.

"When we arrived in Israel about two and a half years ago, the idea of judicial reform was beginning to percolate. At Kiddush, there would be intense arguments between those for and against it. Somebody discovered my background and started calling me "judge," which was never my idea. I prefer to go by Lou.

"People would ask me for my opinion. So, I began discussing concepts like constitutional law and how Israel's founding differs from other states influenced by British governance. Many countries adopted the British system, but Israel did not.

"Israel's legal system is influenced by Ottoman law, British common law from the mandate period, and halakha. The state's founders had vastly different ideologies. Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky each trained as lawyers but with different visions. This has led to the unique tensions we see today,

"In today's debates, the left supports a strong Supreme Court, while the right opposes it. But at the founding, it was the reverse. The left wanted power to reside with the people, not the courts. This has flipped.

"Ben-Gurion, for instance, was clear in that he didn't want an American-style constitution or a constitutional court with the power to reverse legislation. He believed the Knesset should be supreme and reflect the people's will. He never imagined labour would lose control. Over time, many institutions—courts, the army, universities—became power centres for the left. We now see push-back from the political right and entrenchment on the left.

Challenges and Hope for the Future

"In conclusion, we often fail to get beyond our immediate concerns, and we neglect to consider what God expects from us. Moshe's message to B'nai Israel, urging them to follow mitzvot and Torah, still resonates. We correctly blame external factors like Iran and Hamas, but we often do so without meaningful introspection. I try to teach my grandchildren that simple acts of kindness, like greeting strangers, can make a difference.

"I'm optimistic about the future despite the challenges. History shows that our people have always faced adversity, but we persist because we have a higher purpose. We must remain steadfast in our values and strive to be a light unto the nations.